FBI Notes on Steve Jobs Cited Drug Use, Abrasiveness

Newly released Federal Bureau of Investigation files regarding Apple Chairman Steve Jobs noted the computer visionary's use of drugs and abrasive personality but also his fitness for a prospective government appointment.

Wire services Thursday reported the FBI first looked into Jobs in 1991 apparently when the first President George Bush may have been considering him for an unspecified federal appointment, which may have been on the Export Council.

Several individuals questioned Mr. Job's honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals, an FBI summary said.

Jobs, at the time CEO of Next, a workstation company largely bankrolled by H. Ross Perot, the founder of Electronic Data Systems and later independent candidate for President in 1992 and 1996, wasn't known to be angling for a federal appointment.

Business executives are frequently named to presidential commissions or councils, though; at the time of the FBI probe, Bush had named Arnold Schwarzenegger, who later served as Governor of California, as Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness. Bush also extended the life of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Conceivably, Bush, a Republican, may have launched the probe as part of a plan for his 1992 re-election, perhaps replacing Vice President Dan Quayle with Jobs, in an appeal for youth. Bush was defeated after a single term by Democrat Bill Clinton.

Jobs, 56, who died Oct. 5 of pancreatic cancer, had told associates he had taken LSD and hashish, along with other drugs as a youth. Before his death, he collaborated with journalist Walter Isaacson on an authorized biography, which recollects many stories of his youth and early life. Jobs never participated in politics or held a government position, although

The book, Steve Jobs, will be No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list for non-fiction this week in the combined non-fiction and e-book category.

Apple shares traded at $493.15, up $16.47, on Thursday afternoon.