Note: The following are responses by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to questions and statements posed to him via social media related to the Lifetime movie Betty and Coretta.

Question: “Why do you think Lifetime, and those who created this movie, is opening up the old wounds of The Malcolm X Murder at this time?”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (HMLF): It is because the murder of Malcolm X is still alive in the hearts and minds of many, and they wish to charge me with that crime in order to seek to destroy my reputation with the people that love and admire me. And also, to plant the seed in the hearts of those who don’t know me that I am, in fact, a “murderer.”

Question: “What do you think the motive of Mary J. Blige is in being an ‘executive producer’ when I hear that she likes you?”

HMLF: I cannot answer for Mary J. Blige except to say that when a person is famous or well-known, sometimes they will give such person “executive producer status” to add to the strength of the film.

Mary J. Blige is my friend! And nothing that’s in this movie has diminished my love and respect for her.

Question: “What would be your message to the younger generation who is watching Betty & Coretta who do not know anything about what happened, and is being educated—or, mis-educated—by Lifetime?”

HMLF: The first thing that our young people should understand, that there is no statute of limitation on “murder.”

In two years, it will be 50 years since the assassination of Brother Malcolm: At no time during these 48 years has the government opened the files on that murder of Brother Malcolm, and let the public see those files.

I have appealed to the government to open the files, so that everything in those files could be made manifest, not only to the Shabazz family, and the families of those so ill-affected by his murder—but also my family, and the lives that are constantly put in the public.

Question: “I read that the families of Betty and Coretta were not consulted about this movie. So I wanted to ask: Has the Nation of Islam ever been consulted by Hollywood related to all of these movies that attack you all?”

HMLF: I heard that they allowed members of the King and Shabazz family to look at the film after it was done. Nothing like that has ever been accorded to me and my family, since it is I that the film seems bent upon putting in the hearts and minds of the people that “Louis Farrakhan is responsible for the death of Brother Malcolm.”

Question: “So how do you finally feel being exposed that you killed Malcolm X?”

HMLF: I did not kill Malcolm X. Before too long, you will really find who is “exposed”—and it is those who want to put on me what no court, no judge, no jury, could put on me. And if my enemies had a chance to bring me before the courts, and put me in prison for such a crime, they would have done it a long time ago! No, I am not “exposed”. But the wickedness of those behind my slander will be thoroughly exposed!

Question: “Lifetime is already telling us what we already know about you. You confessed to this on 60 Minutes, so this show is only a repeat. You’re guilty, right?”

HMLF: I am not guilty of killing Malcolm X. What I said on 60 Minutes was extracted from a 4-hour interview with Mike Wallace and Attallah Shabazz.

When I stood up to defend the Honorable Elijah Muhammad against what Brother Malcolm was saying, I spoke into an atmosphere exploited by the F.B.I.

The word that I used was “complicit,” but complicit in that my defense of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was manipulated by The Enemy to provide the context of his assassination.