The Trump administration has released approximately 200,000 pages of FBI surveillance records on Martin Luther King Jr., overruling objections from the slain civil rights leader's family and the organisation he led. The documents, which had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, were posted on a government website amid ongoing calls for the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
King's two living children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, were given advance notice and had their own teams review the records. In a joint statement, they urged the public to engage with the documents 'with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief'. They reiterated the family's belief that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, and that the killing involved 'unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies'.
The statement condemned the FBI's COINTELPRO campaign, which they said aimed 'not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle, and destroy Dr. King's reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement'. They warned against attempts to 'weaponize' the documents to spread falsehoods or undermine King's legacy.
Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton criticised the release, calling it 'a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files'. The King Center, founded by King's widow and now led by Bernice King, also expressed disapproval, describing the timing as 'unfortunate and ill-timed' given pressing national issues.
President Trump had promised during his campaign to declassify files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. The JFK records were unsealed in March, and some RFK files were disclosed in April. The King records were originally set to remain sealed until 2027, but the Department of Justice requested a federal judge lift the seal.
