Latest news with #documents
New York Times
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: U.S. Pulls Out of UNESCO Again
More than 6,000 documents related to the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., totaling nearly a quarter-million pages, were posted to the website of the National Archives late Monday afternoon, in what the administration hailed as a triumph of transparency. But several noted King historians said they had found little in the way of new revelations about the death of the civil rights leader in the documents, and noted that the trove does not include F.B.I. wiretap recordings of Dr. King and other materials that remain under court seal until 2027. The release on Monday, with no prior notice, came at a time when Mr. Trump and White House officials have sought to divert attention from right-wing backlash demanding the release of files related to the death of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Trump administration officials said the King assassination documents include notes on the leads pursued by investigators, interviews with people who knew his killer, James Earl Ray, and previously unreleased details of interactions with foreign intelligence services during the manhunt for Mr. Ray. A lone audio file released on Monday includes part of a law enforcement interview with Jerry Ray, one of James Earl Ray's siblings. In a statement, officials said the published documents had 'never been digitized and sat collecting dust in facilities across the federal government for decades.' Many of the pages have been rendered almost illegible by time and the digitizing process. There were random and wide-ranging accounts of the investigation and manhunt, including hundreds of news clippings, tips from the public, accounts of Mr. Ray's forays into dance classes and locksmith school, and his fondness for aliases drawn from James Bond novels. David Garrow, the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning King biography as well as a book about the F.B.I.'s spying campaign on him, said his initial review led him to conclude that there was little of public interest in the files, much of which had already been disclosed. 'I saw nothing that struck me as new,' he said. In 2019, Mr. Garrow published an article that recounted claims he had found in F.B.I. documents released in relation to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Those claims include accounts of Dr. King witnessing an alleged rape in 1964 in a Washington hotel room where he had been staying. It is unclear from the documents, which does not appear to be included in the current tranche, who is making those claims. Mr. Garrow was criticized by some historians for elevating incendiary assertions that were part of an F.B.I. smear campaign, without corroborating evidence. The F.B.I. wiretaps and other surveillance were part of an effort to uncover damaging material on Dr. King, which the agency hoped to leverage in its campaign to derail the civil rights movement. Tapes and transcripts from that surveillance are part of what remains under seal, though summaries and other related material had been released previously. A federal judge last month denied a Justice Department request to unseal the surveillance records two years early. Dr. King had a well-documented history of extramarital relationships. Still, some experts and Dr. King's family have expressed doubts about the veracity of some of the contents of those previously released documents, particularly when it comes to the more provocative claims about aspects of Dr. King's romantic and sexual life. Those details, they said, could be more reflective of official efforts to undermine the civil rights leader's reputation than of reality. 'You've got to read this carefully and don't take it at face value,' said Larry J. Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, who was reviewing the new documents on Monday with his own team of researchers. 'I'm skeptical of anything I read from F.B.I. files about M.L.K.,' he said, adding that he suspected that agents inflated or manufactured material to please J. Edgar Hoover, the agency's longtime director. 'He wanted dirt on and his movements and his associates.' Dr. King's surviving children, Martin III and Bernice, argued in a statement on Monday that their father had been 'relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign.' The children beseeched researchers and the general public to view all of the material from the government's files in the context of their father's contributions to American society. '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 said. Trump administration officials have been in contact with Dr. King's family, but it remains unclear if his relatives were given the right to request redactions of the newly released material. In a news release announcing the document upload, the administration quoted Alveda King, Dr. King's niece and a high-profile supporter of Mr. Trump, who praised the government for providing transparency. 'The declassification and release of these documents are a historic step towards the truth that the American people deserve,' she said. As a candidate last year, Mr. Trump vowed to release files related to President Kennedy's 1963 assassination, and the 1968 murders of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. King. The Kennedy documents, released in March, contained little new information about the assassination itself. Talya Minsberg and Campbell Robertson contributed reporting. Research was contributed by Mitch Smith , Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs , Eduardo Medina , Audra D. S. Burch , Tim Arango , Kurt Streeter , Pooja Salhotra , Livia Albeck-Ripka and Daniel Victor .
CTV News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
CTV National News: U.S. lawmakers call for transparency on Epstein files
Watch Currently, enough Republicans are joining Democrats to force a vote demanding the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Joy Malbon has more.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Administration Releases Documents on Martin Luther King Jr.
The Trump administration on Monday made public a vast trove of documents from the investigation into the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in keeping with President Trump's executive order demanding their release. The release of the documents, about a quarter-million pages of records posted on the National Archives website, includes notes on the leads pursued by investigators, interviews with people who interacted with the assassin James Earl Ray, and previously unreleased details of interactions with foreign intelligence services during the manhunt for Mr. Ray, said Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, who oversaw review of the documents. It is not clear if the digitized files contain unflattering details about Dr. King's personal life. Still, the release comes as Mr. Trump and his staff have sought to divert attention from the backlash on the right after his administration reversed course and did not release more files from the investigation into the death of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The King family has expressed concerns that releasing the records into Dr. King would focus attention on his well-documented sexual indiscretions. They also raised worries about whether doing so would feed a revisionist — negative — view of a man who has come to embody the fight against systemic racism and the call for a robust federal defense of minority groups that Mr. Trump has largely moved to reverse since taking office. Trump administration officials have been in contact with Dr. King's family, although it remains unclear if they were given the right to request redactions of material. Dr. King's two living children, Bernice and Martin III, asked researchers and the general public to view all of the material in the context of his contributions to American society. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
MAGA comes to Trump's defense on Epstein after WSJ turmoil
Influential figures in the MAGA realm who have pushed the administration to release more documents related to Jeffrey Epstein's case are coming to President Trump's defense after The Wall Street Journal reported that the commander-in-chief allegedly sent a lewd letter to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender over 20 years ago. The Journal reported on Thursday about an alleged letter the president sent to Epstein in 2003 for his 50th birthday. The letter, a copy of which was not featured in the piece, reportedly has text framed by the outline of a naked woman and features the line 'Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.' Trump has denied writing the letter. The president sued the Journal the next day in federal court, demanding billions of dollars in damages. 'This lawsuit is filed not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media,' the president said on Truth Social. Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who last week called for a special prosecutor to be appointed to review the Epstein files, said on his 'War Room' show Friday, 'In fact, we made the recommendations that are the best for President Trump in this movement, which is President Trump is best when it's attack, attack, attack. This is the deep state. This is the ruling class in America. They're trying to use it to destroy President Trump.' On the podcast, Bannon asked MAGA podcaster and influencer Jack Posobiec, 'Where are we in all of this, sir?' 'We're so back. Look. Everyone is firing on all cylinders. The MAGA movement is completely united behind this fight right now,' Posobiec said. Conservative commentator and host Megyn Kelly, who has called out Trump supporters who deferred to the administration's posture on the Epstein controversy, said the Journal article on Thursday was the 'dumbest attempted hit piece I've ever read.' Tech billionaire Elon Musk, whose relationship with Trump soured in recent months amid a public fallout, said the 'letter sounds bogus.' Hours after the Journal article was published, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release relevant grand jury testimony in the Epstein case. The order from Trump was welcomed by MAGA as parts of the base have expressed deep dissatisfaction with the administration following last week's release of an unnamed joint DOJ and FBI memo, stating that Epstein did not keep the so-called 'client list' and that he died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial. After Trump issued the order to Bondi on Thursday night, Turning Point USA founder and conservative activist Charlie Kirk wrote on the social media platform X that it was a 'major move. Let's go!' The DOJ followed through on Friday, filing a pair of nearly identical motions to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, requesting to unseal the grand jury transcripts. The DOJ said it would shield the names of potential victims and 'personal identifying information' prior to releasing the transcript. The release of grand jury transcripts is rare due to sensitive information, but not impossible. Right-wing activist Laura Loomer, an ardent supporter of Trump, slammed the former chairman of News Corp Rupert Murdoch and argued that the president should 'cut him off' forever. News Corp owns the Journal. 'Rupert Murdoch should never be allowed to have access to Donald Trump ever again. He's a slime ball. He's a liar and he obviously tried to weaponize his News Corp to, and his media platform, very wealthy, multi-billion-dollar media platform, to assassinate the character of President Trump, because he was not successful in assassinating President Trump's 2024 presidential election,' Loomer said Friday while on Bannon's 'War Room' show. Trump bashed GOP voters earlier this week for being overly focused on the Epstein case and told his supporters that they should move on to other issues. The president also wondered why the Democratic Party lawmakers did not call for the release of the Epstein files while they controlled the White House and had the majority in the Senate. 'If there was a 'smoking gun' on Epstein, why didn't the Dems, who controlled the 'files' for four years, and had [former Attorney General Merrick] Garland and [ex-prosecutor Maureen] Comey in charge, use it,' Trump said Friday on Truth Social, adding 'BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!' Despite the administration's push to release the grand jury testimony, Trump said on Saturday it will likely not be enough to please the 'troublemakers and radical left lunatics.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Is Caught in His Own Trap
A NEW POLL, ON A MATTER THAT ADAMANTLY should not be decided by untutored public opinion, finds that 79 percent of Americans believe all of the documents relating to the Epstein case should be disclosed. A shocking result? Not quite. Ask Americans, who've been hearing wall-to-wall accusations about secret sex abuse cabals, celebrity client lists, and government cover-ups, whether they want to know the full story and—waddaya know—they say yes. They're wrong, and I'll come back to that. But first, there is someone who is less enthusiastic about disclosing all available records, and that person is President Donald Trump. Asked last April whether he would release whatever information the government has about a number of A-list conspiracy theories, Trump was unequivocal . . . until it came to Epstein. Q: Would you declassify the 9/11 files? A: Yes. Q: Would you declassify the JFK files? A: Yeah. I did a lot of it. Q: Would you declassify the Epstein files? A: Yeah, yeah, I would. Q: All right. A: I guess I would. I think that less so because you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would, or at least— Q: You think that would restore trust, help restore trust? A: I don't know about Epstein so much as I do the others, certainly about the way he died. . . . But I'd go a long way toward that one. 'I guess I would.' Hmm. Notable hesitation. But on the matter of rashly releasing the results of investigations, the man is right. Become a Bulwark+ member and join a community of more than 100,000 people enjoying the best reporting, commentary, analysis, and discussion on the internet. Try it free for one month! There's a reason we have a tradition in this country (formerly a nation of laws) that strongly discourages the government from releasing the results of investigations that do not result in a criminal charge: such investigations unearth unsubstantiated gossip, bad-faith accusations, details about the victims, and other potentially damaging information. If there is no criminal procedure, the besmirched citizen will be denied an opportunity to rebut the charges. So Trump is correct that a responsible government should tread carefully before releasing the results of criminal investigations or other inquiries, taking care to redact names or other identifying information about innocent people. Now let's come back to the world we actually inhabit. That's not Trump's motivation. Trump has done more than anyone to demolish the laws, traditions, and basic decency that should govern in these matters. He has himself spewed the kind of incendiary accusations (of treason, of vote stealing, even of murder) that undermine faith in the system. Even on the topic of Epstein, Trump was happy to pile on with MAGA forces in stoking suspicion. In 2019, he retweeted a post suggesting that Bill Clinton might have been involved with Epstein. Asked to elaborate, he resorted to the 'just asking questions' dodge: 'So you have to ask: Did Bill Clinton go to the island? That's the question. If you find that out, you're going to know a lot.' Trump and the forces he unleashed have destroyed the norms and rules that protect innocent people from unjust accusations and flagrant incitement. He cannot hide behind those destroyed norms now. They're gone. MAGA influencers have stoked the Epstein conspiracy theories and countless other lies and calumnies with Trump's blessing for years. In 2023, Kash Patel confidently explained why the Biden administration hadn't released the Epstein files: 'Simple, because of who's on that list. You don't think that Bill Gates is lobbying Congress night and day to prevent the disclosure of that list?' He even threw some shade at congressional Republicans: 'What the hell are the House Republicans doing? They have the majority. You can't get the list? . . . Put on your big boy pants, and let us know who the pedophiles are.' Talk show host Don Bongino, now deputy director of the FBI, repeatedly demanded to know 'what the hell they were hiding.' Get 30 day free trial Epstein's legally established pattern of abusing underage girls was just the springboard to suggest a far more comprehensive corruption deforming elites in America. MAGA foot soldiers like Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, and Benny Johnson piled on, encouraging their audiences to believe that he was a 'deep state' operative who ran a pedophile ring catering to every liberal or Democrat MAGA despised. Trump has never shown anything like concern for the innocent—just the opposite. If the innocent are in his way, he will mow them down without a backward glance. If you're a law-abiding, legal immigrant unjustly detained or even deported to a foreign prison by ICE, don't expect this president to pause for a moment. If you're a legal permanent resident wrongfully detained by immigration authorities for exercising your First Amendment right to speak, don't turn to this president for relief. If you've been defamed or targeted or even had a violent mob sent after you, calling for you to be hanged, don't expect concern for your innocence to cross Trump's mind. No, the only person whose privacy and reputation Trump has any concern about is Trump. And that's why his uncharacteristic reticence about releasing the Epstein files is suspicious. He was happy to encourage the most reckless speculation about a pedophile conspiracy while he was running for office, but now that the worm has turned, he's suddenly concerned about 'innocent' people being hurt. It's impossible to imagine that his reticence arises from anything other than self-interest. He seems to be running scared. It's poetic justice. Share
