Trump administration releases MLK files

What happened

The Trump administration Monday released newly digitized documents relating to the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The tranche is "nearly a quarter-million pages" deep and came "with no prior notice," The New York Times said. It includes discussion of potential leads in the murder of MLK Jr., plus information on King's convicted killer, James Earl Ray.

Who said what

"The American people deserve answers" about the assassination of "one of our nation's great leaders," said Attorney General Pam Bondi upon releasing the files. King's surviving children, Martin and Bernice, gave a statement urging the public to view the documents "within their full context" and recalled that before he was killed, their father was the subject of an "invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign" orchestrated by the FBI that included wiretapping his phone lines and bugging his hotel rooms. They repeated their assertion that Ray was not King's shooter.

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"I saw nothing that struck me as new" in these documents, King biographer David Garrow told the Times. This is a "desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files," the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement. The King Center called the release "unfortunate and ill-timed" considering the "myriad of pressing issues" facing the nation.

What next?

The National Archives said it is working with other federal agencies to identify and release any remaining records "as soon as possible." Wiretap recordings and transcripts from the FBI's surveillance of King are under seal until 2027.