The Trump administration on Monday released over 240,000 pages of long-sealed FBI files targeting MLK Jr. assassination, offering the public a massive trove of raw intelligence, secret memos, and investigative files spanning decades.
The documents, most of which had been kept under a court-imposed seal since 1977, were made publicly available by the National Archives following President Donald Trump’s executive order. The release, praised by some as a step toward transparency, was sharply criticized by Dr. King’s children and civil rights organizations as an insensitive act that risks distorting history and exploiting trauma.
Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, the two surviving children of the late civil rights icon, issued a somber statement addressing the release. Now in their 60s, both children underscored the enduring personal pain of their father’s assassination and urged the public to approach the files with empathy and restraint.
“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,” the statement read. “We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and