The FBI was investigating Michael Jackson child abuse charges in 1978, but the investigation was dropped so that he could meet President Ronald Reagan.

According to FBI documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act, the case was dropped to avoid embarrassing President Reagan, who was due to give the Thriller singer an award.

The revelations come a week after details emerged of how Jackson spent $35 million in order to silence several families who claimed he'd abused their children, according to the Daily Mail. 

In the documents, FBI agents confirmed that they did not follow up claims that two Mexican children were being abused 'because Jackson was to receive an honor at the White House from the President'.

Watch President  Ronald Reagan give Michael Jackson a Humanitarian award here:

The singer was then presented with an award by President Reagan in May 1984, the year his album Thriller won eight Grammys, for his efforts to end drunk-driving in teenagers.

President Reagan awarded Michael Jackson the Presidential Public Safety Communication Award after allowing his song Beat It to be used in a public service campaign.

President Reagan said this of the Billie Jean singer during the ceremony: 'Michael Jackson is proof of what a person can accomplish through a lifestyle free of alcohol or drug abuse.'

President Reagan added: 'If Americans follow his example, then we can face up to the problem of drinking and driving, and we can, in Michael's words, beat it.'

Michael Jackson, who died of an overdose in 2009, was invited to the White House again to meet President Bush Sr and his family in 1990.

Other allegations contained in FBI files include details of a phone call the singer made to a 13-year-old British boy who he befriended in 1979 after being asked for his autograph by the child.

In the phone call to British teenager Terry George, Jackson told the boy he was masturbating while he spoke to him.

Files detail how a couple made a complaint about being kept awake by the 'questionable noises' from a sleeper train compartment being shared by Jackson and a 12-year-old boy in 1992.

No official action was taken in any of these cases.

In a separately-obtained FBI file, a costume designer said that Jackson had ordered magazines containing child pornography when he toured Europe with the Jackson 5.