National Archives released more than 240,000 pages of records in accordance with executive orders starting in January. The King Family hopes people will read the FBI files with skepticism.
Trump administration releases files related to the MLK assassination
More than 240,000 pages related to the assassination of Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. have been released despite opposition from some members of the King family.
President Donald Trump’s administration published a mountain of records on Monday surrounding the assassination of Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Over 240,000 pages of records are now available on the National Archives and the Bureau of Records websites. The Washington, D.C.-based agency says the release corresponds to an executive order from Trump’s White House, dating back to January.
King’s family opposed the release, saying that oversight by the progressive leaders of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was contaminated by the political bends of the agency at the time.
“We recognize that the release of documents relating to the assassination of his father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has long been an interest in the subject of interest and has captivated public curiosity for decades,” the family said in a statement. However, “The release of these files must be seen in their full historical context. During his father’s life, he was mercilessly targeted by invasive, predatory, deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaigns coordinated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Hoover’s goal was to find MLK’s smudges to trust him and the civil rights movement.
Documents related to the King’s assassination are the latest pile of material published through Executive Order 14176. On January 23, 2025, the release of materials related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was also called for. The files related to the JFK assassination were released in March.
The complete findings of the government’s investigation into the three killings have been hidden for decades, sparking widespread speculation and preventing a sense of closure among many Americans. All three men were national and international icons where assassination and theories swirling around it became like pages of books, films, controversy, and history itself.
Trump’s move to declassify MLK-related materials comes amidst a political fire in Washington over the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, a former investor and convicted sex offender who died while awaiting trial in 2019.
Why some of the King Family oppose releasing FBI files
The children of King and Colletta Scott King ask those reading the MLK files to do so with respect for the sadness of their families. They also hope that readers understand that, according to their family, the FBI file was created under the agency’s Cointelpro program.
According to the Encyclopedia of Britannica, Cointelpro was the FBI’s anti-intellectual program aimed at discrediting political organizations. In addition to King, the program targeted the Black Panther Party, the Communist Party, the Crooks Clan and the nationalist parties of Puerto Rico, the encyclopedia says.
A 1975 US Senate investigation condemned the program’s tactics.
“Many of the technologies used could not bear any democratic society, even if all targets were involved in violent activities, but Cointelpro was far beyond that,” the Senate Selection Committee said in its final report to study government activities on intelligence reporting. “The Bureau has carried out a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed at preventing speech and the exercise of the association’s first amendment rights.”
In the case of the civil rights icon, King’s family said Cointelpro’s activities were “not only an invasion of privacy, but a deliberate attack on the truth.”
The family says they support transparency and accountability, but they also fear that FBI research documents from that era could become weaponized.
“We strongly condemn the attempts to misuse these documents in a way that is aimed at undermining the father’s legacy and the important outcomes of the movement,” the family said. “People who promote the outcome of FBI surveillance will unconsciously align themselves with their continued campaign to break down the father and civil rights movement.”
“A desperate attempt to distract people,” says Pastor Al Shapton.
Others have problems with the timing of the release of MLK files. The Trump administration has been under pressure in recent weeks to handle the Epstein investigation file.
Trump on the campaign trail has pledged to release records relating to Epstein and Attorney General Pam Bondy. Earlier this year, Epstein’s client list said it was assuming “sit at my desk and review it now.”
However, the Justice Department said in July that no such document existed, and investigators found no evidence to accus others of the case.
Some Trump Allies I’m having a problem Because the administration was unable to produce any substances related to Epstein. Some critics say the release of the MLK file will serve as a distraction from Epstein Fallout.
“We need to clarify the fact that Trump’s release of the MLK assassination file is not about transparency or justice,” Pastor Al Shapton said. “It’s a desperate attempt to divert people from the Firestorm, which involves the masses, unlocking his credibility among Epstein’s files and Magazine Bases.”
Bernice King, CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non Violent Social Change, posted a photo on her father’s social media with a caption and a caption reading, “Do Epstein Files.”
What do you say about the King’s File?
National Archives has released a record of roughly 5 million pages related to the MLK assassination. The records come from an investigation into the assassination of the FBI, and are recorded by a central intelligence agency that relates to the assassination and files from the State Department regarding the extradition of James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to murdering King in 1969.
Officials at Archives said the agency has worked with other federal partners to reveal records related to the King’s assassination, which will be added to the website on a rolling basis.
The record was released on July 21st around 3:30pm, but it is unclear what revelation it contains. Historians are still sifting through more than 75,000 pages of records released in March related to the assassination of JFK.
So far, the long-standing findings in which Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he assassinated Kennedy on November 22, 1963, have not changed anything in the document.
MLK was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
King, who is respected by federal public holidays for his work promoting the civil rights movement, was killed on the balcony outside a motel room in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Atlanta preacher was visiting the city to march alongside an astonishing worker. On the evening of the assassination, he was preparing to leave for dinner at the local minister’s house.
He went outside and spoke to a colleague in the car park below, and was shot in the face by an assassin. James Earl Ray, 40, escaped the fugitive and later confessed his crimes and was sentenced to a 99-year sentence.
However, Ray later attempts to retract his confession and says that he was founded by a man named Raul. He claimed he did not kill the king until his death in 1998.
The Memphis tavern owner and former FBI agent both claimed that a person named Raul was behind the murder, according to the Justice Department.
Former Memphis tavern owner Lloyd Jowards claimed he took part in a mafia-related plot to kill the king 25 years after the murder. Jowards also linked Memphis police and Raul to assassination, the Justice Department said.
Former FBI agent Donald Wilson claimed he found several papers that mentioned Raul in Ray’s car and figures related to Kennedy’s assassination after King’s assassination in 1998. Wilson said the paper was stolen from him by someone who later worked at the White House, according to the Justice Department.
The family said they do not believe Ray is a shooter and support the discovery of the 1999 illegal death lawsuit.
Justice Department officials said the findings of civil lawsuits were I can’t trust it.
Please read the MLK file
Want to read your own MLK files? These can be found on the National Archives website here.
Most files are scans of documents, with some files becoming either blurry or slightly hard to read or hard to read in decades since King’s assassination. Photos and sound recordings are also available.
Josh Meyer’s contribution
