The release of hundreds of thousands of pages related to civil rights leader comes despite his family’s opposition.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has released more than 230,000 pages of files relating to the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
In a statement issued on Monday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the release “unprecedented” and cited the president’s commitment to “complete transparency”.
Trump signed an executive order after taking office, declassifying documents relating to the assassinations of King, former President John F Kennedy and former Senator Robert F Kennedy.
King’s records had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered them and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The National Archives released records from John F Kennedy’s November 1963 assassination in March and files related to the June 1968 murder of Robert F Kennedy in April.
King was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998, but King’s children have expressed doubts that he was the assassin.
His family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, were given advance notice of the release and had their own teams reviewing the records ahead of the public disclosure. Those efforts continued even as the government unveiled the digital trove.
In a lengthy statement released on Monday, the King children called their father’s assassination a “captivating public curiosity for decades”. But the pair emphasised the personal nature of the matter and urged that “these files must be viewed within their full historical context”.
During his lifetime, the civil rights leader had been the target of an “invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign” orchestrated by then-FBI director J Edgar Hoover, they said in a joint statement.
The FBI campaign was intended to “discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement,” they said. “These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth.”
It was not immediately clear on Monday whether the release would shed any new light on King’s life, the civil rights movement or his murder.
Timing of release raises eyebrows
Besides fulfilling the intent of his January executive order, the latest release serves as another alternative headline for Trump as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration’s handling of records concerning the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019, during Trump’s first presidency. Trump last Friday ordered the Department of Justice to release the grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file.
On social media, users accused the administration of releasing King’s files as an attempt to distract from criticisms over its handling of the Epstein files.
This is shameful.
Instead of honoring the Trump administration’s promise to release the Epstein files, DNI Tulsi Gabbard is trying to distract the public by dredging up discredited FBI smears against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., against his family’s wishes.
Weaponizing…
— Evaristus Odinikaeze (@odinikaeze) July 21, 2025
Bernice King and Martin Luther King III did not mention Trump in their statement on Monday. As of late Monday afternoon, the administration had not commented on the release.
The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department lawyers in June asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order ahead of its expiration date.
