On July 21, 2025, the Trump administration released over 230,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., including FBI surveillance files, despite opposition from King’s family and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he co-founded. The release, ordered via Executive Order 14176 signed on January 23, 2025, fulfilled a campaign promise by President Trump to declassify records concerning the assassinations of King, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. The documents, previously under a court-imposed seal since 1977, were made public through the National Archives and include FBI memos, CIA records, and Canadian police evidence related to the hunt for James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to King’s murder but later recanted, claiming he was framed.
King’s surviving children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, expressed concern, urging the public to view the files with “empathy, restraint, and respect” for their family’s grief, emphasizing the personal nature of their father’s loss. They highlighted the FBI’s COINTELPRO campaign under J. Edgar Hoover, which illegally surveilled King to discredit him and the Civil Rights Movement, including wiretapping his phones and bugging his hotel rooms. The family, along with civil rights leaders like Al Sharpton, worried the release could revive Hoover’s smear efforts, with some alleging the files might contain untruthful claims, such as uncorroborated allegations of King’s personal conduct. However, Alveda King, King’s niece, supported the release, calling it a “historic step towards the truth.”
Historians noted little new information in the assassination records, with no significant revelations about King’s death. The files do detail the FBI’s pursuit of Ray, who fled to Canada, Portugal, and the UK before his 1969 conviction, and the CIA’s focus on King’s anti-war and anti-poverty activism. The release has sparked debate, with critics like Sharpton suggesting it distracts from demands for transparency on other issues, such as Jeffrey Epstein’s case. The King family continues to dispute Ray’s sole responsibility, citing a 1999 civil case that suggested a broader conspiracy, and they plan to review the files for new insights. The documents are available online at archives.gov/mlk.