Trump administration releases FBI records on MLK Jr. despite his family's opposition
The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
In a lengthy statement released Monday, King's two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father's killing has been a "captivating public curiosity for decades." But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter and urged that the files "be viewed within their full historical context."
The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access. Among the documents are leads the FBI received after King's assassination and details of the CIA's fixation on King's pivot to international anti-war and anti-poverty movements in the years before he was killed. It was not immediately clear whether the documents shed new light on King's life, the Civil Rights Movement or his murder.
"As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met -- an absence our family has endured for over 57 years," they wrote. "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."
They also repeated the family's long-held contention that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, if at all.
Bernice King was 5 years old when her father was killed at the age of 39. Martin III was 10.
A statement from the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure "unprecedented" and said many of the records had been digitized for the first time. She praised President Donald Trump for pushing the issue.
Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with those associated with Robert F. Kennedy's and MLK's 1968 assassinations.
The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April.
The announcement from Gabbard's office included a statement from Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, who is an outspoken conservative and has broken from King's children on various topics — including the FBI files. Alveda King said she was "grateful to President Trump" for his "transparency."
Separately, Attorney General Pam Bondi's social media account featured a picture of the attorney general with Alveda King.
Besides fulfilling Trump's order, the latest release means another alternative headline for the president 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 Justice Department to release grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file.
Bernice King and Martin Luther King III did not mention Trump in their statement Monday. But Bernice King later posted on her personal Instagram account a black-and-white photo of her father, looking annoyed, with the caption "Now, do the Epstein files."
And some civil rights activists did not spare the president.
"Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "It's a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the MAGA base."
The King Center, founded by King's widow and now led by Bernice King, reacted separately from what Bernice said jointly with her brother. The King Center statement framed the release as a distraction — but from more than short-term political controversy.
"It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society," the King Center, linking those challenges to MLK's efforts. "This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace."
The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order early. Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents for new information about his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the Civil Rights Movement blossomed, opposed the release. The group, along with King's family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, hoping to discredit them and their movement.
It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover's bureau wiretapped King's telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to gather information, including evidence of King's extramarital affairs.
"He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation," the King children said in their statement.
"The intent ... was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King's reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement," they continued. "These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo."
The Kings said they "support transparency and historical accountability" but "object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods."
Opposition to King intensified even after the Civil Rights Movement compelled Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After those victories, King turned his attention to economic justice and international peace. He criticized rapacious capitalism and the Vietnam War. King asserted that political rights alone were not enough to ensure a just society. Many establishment figures like Hoover viewed King as a communist threat.
King was assassinated as he was aiding striking sanitation workers in Memphis, part of his explicit turn toward economic justice.
Ray pleaded guilty to King's murder. Ray later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998.
King family members and others have long questioned whether Ray acted alone, or if he was even involved. Coretta Scott King asked for the probe to be reopened, and in 1998, then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a new look. Reno's Justice Department said it "found nothing to disturb the 1969 judicial determination that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King."
In their latest statement, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III repeated their assertions that Ray was set up. They pointed to a 1999 civil case, brought by the King family, in which a Memphis jury concluded that Martin Luther King Jr. had been the target of a conspiracy.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
13 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Russia, Ukraine discuss more prisoner swaps
ISTANBUL (Reuters) -- Russia and Ukraine discussed further prisoner swaps on Wednesday at a brief session of peace talks in Istanbul, but the sides remained far apart on ceasefire terms and a possible meeting of their leaders. "We have progress on the humanitarian track, with no progress on a cessation of hostilities," Ukraine's chief delegate Rustem Umerov said after talks that lasted just 40 minutes. He said Ukraine had proposed a meeting before the end of August between Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added, "By agreeing to this proposal, Russia can clearly demonstrate its constructive approach." Russia's chief delegate Vladimir Medinsky said the point of a leaders' meeting should be to sign an agreement, not to "discuss everything from scratch." He renewed Moscow's call for a series of short ceasefires of 24-48 hours to enable the retrieval of bodies. Ukraine says it wants an immediate and much longer ceasefire. The talks took place just over a week after US President Donald Trump threatened heavy new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its exports unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. There was no sign of any progress toward that goal, although both sides said there was discussion of further humanitarian exchanges following a series of prisoner swaps, the latest of which took place on Wednesday. Medinsky said the negotiators agreed to exchange at least 1,200 more prisoners of war from each side, and Russia had offered to hand over another 3,000 Ukrainian bodies. He said Moscow was working through a list of 339 names of Ukrainian children that Kyiv accuses it of abducting. Russia denies that charge and says it has offered protection to children separated from their parents during the war. "Some of the children have already been returned back to Ukraine. Work is under way on the rest. If their legal parents, close relatives, representatives are found, these children will immediately return home," Medinsky said. Umerov said Kyiv was expecting "further progress" on POWs, adding, "We continue to insist on the release of civilians, including children." Ukrainian authorities say at least 19,000 children have been forcibly deported. Before the talks, the Kremlin had played down expectations, describing the two sides' positions as diametrically opposed and saying no one should expect miracles. At 40 minutes, the meeting was even shorter than the two sides' previous encounters on May 16 and June 2, which lasted a combined total of under three hours. Oleksandr Bevz, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said Kyiv had proposed a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting in August because that would fall within the deadline set by Trump for a deal. Putin turned down a previous challenge from Zelenskyy to meet in person and has said he does not see him as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when Zelenskyy's five-year mandate expired last year. Trump has patched up relations with Zelenskyy after a public row with him at the White House in February, and has lately expressed growing frustration with Putin. Three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters last week that Putin, unfazed by Trump's ultimatum, would keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engaged on his terms for peace, and that his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance.
Korea Herald
13 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Columbia University to pay $200m in clash with Trump
NEW YORK (AFP) -- Columbia University said Wednesday it will pay $200 million to the US government after President Donald Trump threatened to pull federal funding over what he said was its unwillingness to protect Jewish students. In a sweeping deal that will restore the prestigious New York institution's federal monies, Columbia has pledged to obey rules that bar it from taking race into consideration in admissions or hiring, among other concessions. "Columbia University has reached an agreement with the United States government to resolve multiple federal agency investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws," a statement said, adding that the $200 million would be paid over three years. The university will also pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it said. "Under today's agreement, a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025 will be reinstated and Columbia's access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored," the statement said. The promise of the federal funding spigot reopening offers relief for the university, which was under growing financial pressure, despite a comfortable endowment and a reputation it can bank on. The agreement also represents a victory for Trump, who has repeatedly claimed elite universities brainwash students against his nationalist ideas with left-wing bias. Thanking Columbia for "agreeing to do what is right," Trump warned in a social media post that "numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust ... are upcoming." The centuries-old Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is also in a fight with the administration over Trump's threats to rip away federal funding, and Wednesday's carefully worded agreement -- in which Columbia admitted no wrongdoing -- could offer a framework for future deals. "This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty," Columbia's acting president Claire Shipman said. "The settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track. "Importantly, it safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration, work that is vital to the public interest." Under the settlement, Columbia will maintain a security force to prevent demonstrations in academic spaces, such as those that rocked the campus last year when pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with law enforcement and occupied university buildings. The school also agreed to "promptly provide" federal authorities with any requested information on "disciplinary actions involving student visa-holders resulting in expulsions or suspensions, and arrest records that Columbia is aware of for criminal activity, including trespass or other violation of law." Columbia found itself at the center of a firestorm last year over claims of anti-Semitism triggered by campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza. Some Jewish students claimed they were intimidated and that authorities did not act to protect them. The school announced a wave of various student punishments on Tuesday, including expulsions and degree revocations, against nearly 80 students involved in the pro-Palestinian protest movement that has called on the university to divest from Israel. "Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community," Columbia said in a statement about student protests on its campus. "Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences." While the university appears to be acquiescing to the Trump administration's demands to quash student protest, one of the most prominent leaders of the US pro-Palestinian campus protests is still raising his voice. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate active in campus demonstrations, has sued the Trump administration for $20 million over his arrest and detention by immigration agents. Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States who is married to a US citizen, missed the birth of his son while being held in a federal immigration detention center in Louisiana. He called the lawsuit a "first step towards accountability."
Korea Herald
15 hours ago
- Korea Herald
US, EU trade talks bolstered by Trump's agreement with Japan
BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The European Union and the US are moving toward a trade deal that could include a 15 percent US baseline tariff on EU goods and possible exemptions, two European diplomats said Wednesday, potentially moving President Donald Trump closer to another major trade agreement on the heels of the one he just unveiled with Japan. European negotiators were hoping to reach an agreement to dodge the 30 percent tariff rate Trump has said he would impose on imports from the 27-nation bloc on August 1. The rate, which could also extend to cars, would mirror the framework agreement the US has struck with Japan, which Trump announced late Tuesday. There could be concessions for sectors like aircraft and lumber as well as some medicines and agricultural products, which would not face tariffs, the diplomats said. Washington does not, however, appear willing to lower its current 50 percent tariff on steel, they said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro told Bloomberg News the report from the EU should be taken with "a grain of salt." As talks continued, the European Commission said it would press on with potential counter-measures in case a deal was not reached. EU member states were set to vote on 93 billion euros of counter-tariffs on US goods on Thursday, European diplomats said. A broad majority of members support using anti-coercion instruments if there is no deal, they said. Trump was aiming to secure an agreement on the heels of a complicated deal reached with Japan, the largest foreign investor in the US That deal included a $550 investment and loan pledges from Japan and its commitment to buy 100 Boeing airplanes and boost purchases of US agricultural products. That investment — to be spent at Trump's discretion — would focus on key industries like energy, semiconductors, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals and shipbuilding, the White House said Wednesday. Tariffs on Japan's auto sector will drop from 27.5 percent to 15 percent as part of the agreement, reviving hopes for similar treatment for European cars. Asian and European stock markets rallied as investors cheered the US-Japan agreement, but US stocks showed a more modest rise and earnings reports were gloomy. American businesses making everything from chips to steel reported downbeat results Wednesday, revealing how the Trump administration's chaotic trade policy has hurt profits, added to costs, upended supply chains and weighed on consumer confidence. US automakers signaled their unhappiness with the Japan deal, raising concerns about a trade regime that cuts tariffs on Japanese auto imports while leaving 25 percent tariffs on imports from their plants and suppliers in Canada and Mexico. "Any deal that charges a lower tariff for Japanese imports with virtually no US content than the tariff imposed on North American-built vehicles with high US content is a bad deal for US industry and US auto workers," said Matt Blunt, the president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent Stellantis. Automobile stocks led the climb of European shares after the Japan deal spurred hopes that the US was budging over tariffs on EU cars. EU officials have previously said Washington has shown little sign of doing so. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that Japan received the 15 percent rate on auto tariffs "because they were willing to provide this innovative financing mechanism" that he did not think other countries could replicate. Trump, however, has appeared open to a range of options as the US negotiates trade deals. "I will only lower tariffs if a country agrees to open its market," Trump wrote in a social media post Wednesday. The Republican president said late Tuesday that other countries would be coming to Washington for talks this week. Governments were scrambling to close trade deals before next week's deadline that the White House has repeatedly pushed back under pressure from markets and intense lobbying by industry. US and Chinese officials plan to meet in Stockholm next week to discuss extending an August 12 deadline for negotiating a trade deal. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday would not discuss expectations for the meeting, but said Bessent "looks forward to continuing discussions with his Chinese counterparts."
