U.S. Releases Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination Files Despite Family Concerns

The Trump administration on Monday released hundreds of thousands of pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., despite reservations expressed by his surviving family members.

“The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination,” said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a statement. “We are ensuring that no stone is left unturned in our mission to deliver complete transparency on this pivotal and tragic event in our nation’s history.”

According to Gabbard, more than 230,000 pages of documents are being published, “with minimal redactions for privacy reasons.”

The release follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump early in his administration, mandating the declassification of files on the 1960s assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.

The National Archives had previously published records related to President Kennedy’s 1963 assassination in March, and those concerning Robert Kennedy’s 1968 murder in April.

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968 while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Though James Earl Ray was convicted of the killing and later died in prison in 1998, King’s family has long voiced skepticism about the official narrative.

In a joint statement on Monday, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s surviving children, acknowledged the importance of transparency but expressed apprehension about how the newly released records might be used.

They stated they “support transparency and historical accountability” but were concerned the records could be used for “attacks on our father’s legacy.”

They added that Martin Luther King Jr. had been the subject of an “invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign” orchestrated by then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

The campaign, they said, was intended to “discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement.”

“These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth,” the statement read. “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.”

The Warren Commission, which investigated President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, concluded that it was carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine sharpshooter acting alone. Despite this, conspiracy theories persist, partly fueled by the slow release of classified materials over the decades.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in June 1968 while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, was killed by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born Jordanian. Sirhan remains in prison in California, serving a life sentence.