The Trump administration has made public hundreds of thousands of pages related to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., despite concerns voiced by members of the King family.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced the release on Monday, stating, “The American people have waited nearly sixty years to fully understand the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination. We are committed to leaving no stone unturned in providing transparency around this pivotal and tragic moment in our history.” Over 230,000 documents have been declassified and published, with only minimal redactions to protect personal privacy.
This release follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump shortly after taking office, directing the declassification of documents related to high-profile 1960s assassinations—including those of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. King. The National Archives had previously released JFK-related files in March and records on Robert Kennedy’s assassination in April.
Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1968. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and remained imprisoned until his death in 1998. However, King’s surviving children have long questioned Ray’s guilt.
In a statement, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King said that while they support transparency and historical accountability, they worry the newly released documents could be misused to damage their father’s legacy. They emphasized that during his lifetime, Dr. King was subjected to an “invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign” led by then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover—efforts that were designed to “discredit, dismantle, and destroy” both King’s reputation and the broader Civil Rights Movement.
“These were not just invasions of privacy—they were calculated attacks on the truth,” the siblings said. “We ask that those reviewing these files approach them with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s enduring grief.”
The Warren Commission concluded that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine acting alone. However, the decision to release related files incrementally has continued to fuel widespread speculation and conspiracy theories about the true circumstances of his death.
President Kennedy’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy, who was serving as attorney general and campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, was assassinated in June 1968. Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian-born Palestinian, was convicted of the crime and remains incarcerated in California.
