Fact check
Is it true: Tesla's Missing Papers and FBI Seizure?
Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.
On January 7-8, 1943, representatives of the Office of Alien Property and the FBI entered Tesla's Hotel New Yorker rooms (2327 and 3328) and seized his papers. The seizure was authorized because Tesla held Austro-Hungarian/Yugoslav citizenship (making his property "alien" in wartime). John G. Trump (President Trump's uncle, MIT electrical engineer and later NSF director) was tasked by the OAP with reviewing the materials. His January 30, 1943 report concluded the papers contained "philosophical and theoretical" material that was "not of value in the present war effort". Most materials were eventually shipped to Yugoslavia via Tesla's nephew Sava Kosanović; they form the basis of the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. Conspiracy claims that a working "death ray" or free-energy technology was suppressed are not supported by Trump's review or subsequent scholarly analysis (Margaret Cheney, Marc Seifer), though Tesla's own late-career proposals (teleforce) were never engineered into a working prototype before his death.
The claim
The 1943 FBI seizure of Nikola Tesla's papers and belongings from his New York hotel room within hours of his death. The seizure is well-documented; what was taken, what was sensitive, and whether tec
Key evidence
Tesla papers seized January 1943
John G. Trump report concluded papers not of military value
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