Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is sitting on the phone after meeting a Protestant white crowd against the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, on May 26, 1961. On Monday, Trump administration published a trailer of files on the King assassination.
Newspapers Express / Getty Images / Hulton Archive
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Newspapers Express / Getty Images / Hulton Archive
The National Archives have published thousands of newly digitized documents concerning the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as part of a directive by President Trump.
The release Monday Follows on an executive decree that Trump has signed days in his second mandate, requiring the release and declassification of files related to the murder of King and the assassinations of former president John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy – tragedies that have been the subject of curiosity and conspiracy theories for decades.
It was not immediately clear what new historical ideas are in the mine of documents. The Office of the National Intelligence Director said in a statement on Monday that the press release included more than 230,000 files relating to the King assassination, including information related to the man who was found guilty of having murdered him, James Earl Ray.
“The documents include details on the FBI investigation into the assassination of the MLK, the discussion of the potential tracks, the FBI internal memos detailing the progress of the case, the information on the former cell companion of James Earl Ray who declared that he had discussed with Ray an alleged assassination plot, and even more,” the ODNI press release.
King’s family responded to the Liberation by saying that the files must be considered “in their full historical context”, adding that the deceased chief of civil rights was “tirelessly targeted by an invasive, predatory and deeply disturbing campaign of disinformation and surveillance orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover by the Federal Office of the Investigation (FBI).”
“Although we support transparency and historical responsibility, we oppose all the attacks on our father’s inheritance or tries to arm it to spread lies,” King’s children wrote in a statement.
King family members have long challenged Ray’s conviction, arguing that he was put in place, a repeated point in the declaration of Monday.
“While we are examining these recently published files, we will assess if they provide additional information beyond the results that our family has already accepted,” they said.
In a statement announcing the press release, the Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “The American people deserves responses from the decades after the horrible assassination of one of the great leaders of our country.”
The Trump administration’s decision to publish the files comes when the White House faces the growing pressure from the Trump base to also publish additional information related to the financial in disgrace and the sexual offender, sentenced Jeffrey Epstein.
In March,, The administration has also published thousands of files relating to the assassination of JFK.
