LOS ANGELES — A television documentary claiming Lyndon B. Johnson helped plot the Kennedy assassination was condemned as an absurd smear by Johnson's family and former staff members.

A History Channel film that aired Monday alleges that then-Vice President Johnson and members of his staff were responsible for President Kennedy's 1963 killing, said LBJ Foundation Chairman Tom Johnson, no relation to the former president.

"I do not know of a greater injustice to the reputation of a former president — especially to be on The History Channel," Tom Johnson, who worked in the Johnson White House, said in an interview Tuesday.

He and Jack Valenti, another former Johnson staff member and current president of the Motion Picture Association of America, issued a joint statement on behalf of the Johnson family and others.

"Sadly, President Johnson and the staff members who are wrongly smeared by the conspiracy theorists are no longer alive to defend themselves," the statement said. "In televising this production, The History Channel has distorted history beyond recognition."

It was the second recent TV project about a former president to draw criticism. CBS yanked its November miniseries "The Reagans" after supporters of former President Reagan said it distorted his legacy while he suffers Alzheimer's disease.

The latest program aired as part of an umbrella series titled "The Men Who Killed Kennedy," a package of documentaries about various conspiracy theories regarding Kennedy's death, said channel spokeswoman Lynn Gardner.

The films in "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" series are from producer Nigel Turner and have aired before on cable TV, channel spokeswoman Gardner said. Monday's film, titled "The Guilty Men," was based in part on the book "Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K." by Barr McClellan, she said.

"The History Channel does not say that any of these theories are correct nor does not in any way say that the theory in this program is correct," the channel said in a statement. "We are, however, presenting a point of view that has been meticulously researched.

"By presenting different viewpoints we enable our viewers to decide to agree or disagree with them and to arrive at their own conclusions," the channel said.

Kennedy was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The Warren Commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin, but claims of more extensive plots continue to fascinate the public.

"I'm puzzled, bewildered, that a distinguished enterprise like the History Channel would put on the air such garbage, such ugliness," Valenti said in an interview. "It makes one sick."