Latest news with #MLKAssassination
The Independent
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
MLK Jr's daughter tells Trump ‘now do the Epstein files' after 230,000 pages released on civil rights leader
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter has urged Donald Trump to release the full, unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files after thousands of documents surrounding the civil rights activist's assassination were unsealed. Bernice King, 62, issued a blunt request to the president after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced the release of more than 230,000 pages tied to MLK's 1968 murder, promising 'complete transparency' over the case. 'Now, do the Epstein files,' King tweeted on Monday evening, along with a photograph of her father. King, who was five when her father was assassinated, and her brother Martin Luther King III, said in a joint statement: 'While we support transparency and historical accountability, we object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods.' Some civil rights activists rejected claims that the Trump administration was pursuing true transparency. The King Center, which is now led by Bernice King, framed the release of documents as a distraction. 'It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society,' it said. Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that Trump's unsealing of the MLK assassination files was 'not about transparency or justice.' '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,' he added. The documents on the murder of the civil rights leader were posted as Trump faces mounting pressure to release all documents related to Epstein's sex trafficking investigation. The president continues to face MAGA backlash after his administration concluded earlier this month that there was no evidence the convicted sex offender maintained a 'client list.' Trump has repeatedly framed the issue as a 'hoax' perpetrated by Democrats. The Democrats, in return, said that Trump is attempting to distract from the scandal, including by peddling a conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama orchestrated the Russia investigation into Trump's 2016 campaign. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Monday that Trump is 'running scared.' 'Why do we think President Joe Biden or President Barack Obama's names are being invoked?,' he said. 'Because Donald Trump is running scared.' A day after the Wall Street Journal 's bombshell report that Trump allegedly sent a bawdy 50th birthday card to Epstein, the president asked the court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the prosecution of Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. A former prosecutor said that the document release is unlikely to produce much, if anything, and is a move to 'present himself as if he's doing something here and it really is nothing.'
The Independent
05-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Federal judge hints at early release of MLK Jr assassination files following Trump's order
The government's secret files on the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could be released ahead of schedule after a federal judge in Washington indicated he was open to doing so. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, demanding the release of all government documents pertaining to the shootings of MLK, as well as both President John F Kennedy and his brother, Robert F Kennedy, in the 1960s. 'Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth,' Trump said in the order. 'It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay.' Dr King was shot dead on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4 1968, with the official narrative remaining that the gunman was the petty criminal James Earl Ray, who hit him with a Remington rifle fired from the window of a rented room in a boarding house standing across the street. In 1977, a judge ordered the government to unseal all of the files it holds on the case and make them public in 2027. However, at Wednesday's hearing in Washington, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia suggested he was prepared to bring the release date forward to comply with Trump's wishes, although he also emphasized the importance of sensitivity. Judge Leon said the first step would be for the National Archives and Records Administration to show him the complete inventory of files it has in its possession on the MLK assassination and the FBI investigation that followed, so as to establish the size of the processing task ahead. The hearing was prompted by a lawsuit filed by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization based in King's native Atlanta, Georgia, which seeks to halt the expedited release. Before the judge's ruling, Sumayya Saleh, a lawyer representing the conference, had argued that the push to publish the documents amounted to a 'deliberate effort to undermine the civil rights movement' and to 'discredit' MLK's legacy. Justice Department lawyer Johnny Walker proposed that officials from his agency be allowed to comb through the papers first and produce a subset that the justice and the conference could peruse before approving or challenging their release. Judge Leon ultimately determined that he should have the first look, describing the situation as 'the first few steps in a journey' that could take years and reminding both sides: 'This is delicate stuff.' 'Keep the lines of communication open,' he ordered the Justice Department and Southern Christian Leadership Conference, saying he would 'bless' any agreement between them to examine the files jointly. 'That's in everyone's interest, including the president's.' The King family has long contested that version of events, and the killing has been the subject of conspiracy theories ever since, with some suggesting a police sharpshooter really fired the fatal shot and others that Ray had accepted a $50,000 bounty put forward by segregationist groups to make the hit. 'The Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband… Mr Ray was set up to take the blame,' the deceased's widow, Coretta Scott King, said in 1999.
