The Trump administration has released approximately 200,000 pages of FBI surveillance records on Martin Luther King Jr, overriding objections from his family and the civil rights organisation he led. The documents, which had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, were posted on a government website.
King's surviving children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, were given advance notice and appealed for the public to engage with the files "with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief". They reiterated their belief that James Earl Ray was not solely responsible for their father's assassination, citing unnamed co-conspirators including government agencies.
The release follows a campaign promise by Donald Trump 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 in April. The King records were originally sealed until 2027, but justice department attorneys requested a federal judge lift the seal.
Some civil rights activists criticised the timing. Reverend Al Sharpton called it "a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files". The King Center, founded by King's widow, described the release as "unfortunate and ill-timed" given pressing national and global issues.
