The long-sealed files related to the FBI’s yearslong surveillance of civil rights icon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were released Monday by the Trump administration.
Before that, the more than 240,000 pages had never been “digitized and sat collecting dust in facilities across the federal government for decades,” the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement.
In the hours since the trove of documents was made available through the National Archives and Records Administration, experts have said the files do not appear to include any major revelations.
Here’s what we know so far about the files:
What’s in the FBI’s MLK files?
The internal FBI memos detail the investigation into King’s assassination in 1968 and include the discussion of potential leads as well as documents related to James Earl Ray, King’s convicted assassin, according to the Trump administration.
The files include scans of black and white documents that were often composed by typewriter as well as a few pages in color.
The documents were initially intended to remain under seal until 2027. However, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that mandated the files be declassified and released.
The publication of the MLK files also comes as the Trump administration continues to weather a barrage of criticism over its handling of the release of documents related to the case of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the investigation into his underaged sex trafficking operation. Trump and Epstein were friendly for years before Epstein was charged with solicitation of prostitution in the mid 2000s.
What did King’s family say about the files?
The King family has long objected to the release of the documents and urged the public to view the records “within their full historical context.”
“During our father’s lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” King’s children, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, said in a joint statement posted on social media.
The family, which was given advance access to the files, has denied Ray was solely responsible for the death of the civil rights leader. Ray initially pleaded guilty to the murder but later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998.
“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,” the Kings said in their statement.
“Those who promote the fruit of the FBI’s surveillance will unknowingly align themselves with an ongoing campaign to degrade our father and the Civil Rights Movement,” they added.
But not everyone in the King family opposes the publication of the files. King’s niece, Alveda King, an outspoken conservative who frequently diverges publicly from her family, has said she’s “grateful to President Trump” for his “transparency” after the documents’ release.
Why does the FBI have files on King?
The FBI surveilled King and his associates throughout the Civil Rights Movement.
Under the direction of Hoover, the agency sought to undermine King’s efforts to secure civil rights for African Americans by dredging up information that could tarnish his personal image and investigating his alleged ties to the Communist Party.
“They treated him as an adversary – somebody who it would help to have dirt on,” historian Jonathan Eig, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “King: A Life,” told CNN’s Zachary Wolf.
In addition to surveillance, King’s phone lines were often bugged, as well as the hotel rooms where he would often stay, Eig said.
The FBI has previously released a memo that attempts to tie King to various communist influences and alleges financial improprieties at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization he led. The document also graphically describes King’s history of adultery.
It is unclear what new revelations, if any, will be contained in the new trove of records.
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