Trump govt releases 230,000 pages on Martin Luther King’s assassination

Trump administration has and released over 230,000 pages of records related to the assassination of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a move that comes despite concerns raised by his surviving family members.

Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, announced the release on Monday, stating, “The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr King’s assassination.” She emphasized the government’s commitment to full transparency, assuring that the documents were published with only “minimal redactions for privacy reasons.”

This release follows an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump to declassify files concerning the high-profile 1960s assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. King. Records related to President Kennedy’s 1963 assassination were released in March, while those regarding his brother Robert’s 1968 murder were published in April.

Dr. King was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Although James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and later died in prison in 1998, members of the King family have long expressed doubts about Ray’s guilt.

In a joint statement issued on Monday, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King voiced their concerns over the newly released files. While expressing support for transparency and historical accountability, they warned that the documents could be misused to tarnish their father’s legacy.

They recalled the FBI’s relentless surveillance campaign led by former Director J. Edgar Hoover, which aimed to “discredit, dismantle, and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement.” They described the bureau’s efforts as “invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing,” calling them deliberate attacks on both their father’s privacy and the truth.

“We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief,” their statement read.

Meanwhile, the government’s slow and staggered release of assassination-related records over the years has continued to stoke public suspicion and fuel various conspiracy theories, particularly regarding the deaths of both Kennedys.

President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was officially attributed to lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald by the Warren Commission, though many remain skeptical of that conclusion. His brother, Robert F. Kennedy, was killed while campaigning for president in 1968. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born Jordanian, was convicted of the murder and is serving a life sentence in California.

The newly released MLK files are now available for public access through the National Archives.