Report: FBI probed Valenti's sexuality

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The FBI secretly investigated the sex life of former Hollywood lobbyist Jack Valenti when he worked in the White House in the '60s, record indicated.

Valenti was a special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, when the FBI investigated rumors that he was gay, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The newspaper said FBI files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the Republican Party carried out a similar investigation.

Valenti, who died two years ago, had been president of the Motion Picture Association of America, the movie industry's major trade organization.

The Post reported that although Valenti had been married to Johnson's personal secretary for two years, he was suspected of having a gay relationship with a commercial photographer.

The newspaper said no proof of the suspected relationship was ever found, but the files "provide further insight into the conduct of the FBI" under J. Edgar Hoover, "for whom damaging personal information on the powerful was a useful tool."