The Trump administration on Monday released over 240,000 pages of FBI surveillance records on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from his family and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The documents had been sealed since 1977 and were initially scheduled for release in 2027, but the Justice Department requested early unsealing. The files were handed to the National Archives and digitized for public access.
King’s children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, called the disclosure deeply personal and urged the public to approach it “with empathy, restraint, and respect.” They reiterated long-held doubts about James Earl Ray’s sole responsibility for King’s assassination and cited a 1999 civil ruling that found King was the target of a conspiracy.
The records detail the FBI’s extensive surveillance under Director J. Edgar Hoover, who orchestrated efforts to discredit King, including wiretaps, informants, and disinformation. The King family condemned the campaign as a “predatory” attempt to destroy King’s legacy and the Civil Rights Movement.
The move follows Trump’s earlier orders to release files related to the JFK and RFK assassinations and may serve as a political gesture to fulfill declassification promises amid controversy surrounding his record transparency. The King family did not reference Trump in their statement.
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