Trump Declassifies MLK Files: 240K Pages of FBI Surveillance & Controversial Intel

Trump Administration Releases Sealed FBI Surveillance Records on Martin Luther King Jr.

The Trump administration has released over 240,000 pages of previously sealed FBI surveillance records related to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., sparking renewed public interest and strong reactions from civil rights groups and King's family.

The documents, kept under court seal since 1977, were turned over to the National Archives decades ago. They were originally scheduled to remain sealed until 2027. However, the Justice Department requested early release, and a federal judge lifted the sealing order. The disclosure follows President Donald Trump’s January executive order calling for the declassification of files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.

King's children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, received advance notice and had their own legal and research teams review the files before their public release. In a joint statement, they acknowledged that their father’s life and legacy have long captivated public attention, but urged the public to engage with the records respectfully and with understanding.

They emphasized the deeply personal nature of the release:

"As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief... We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief."

At the time of Dr. King’s assassination in 1968, Bernice was just five years old and Martin III was ten.

Civil rights organizations, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — which Dr. King co-founded in 1957 — also opposed the release. They argued that the FBI’s surveillance of King and other civil rights leaders was unlawful and meant to undermine the Civil Rights Movement.

Records released in earlier years had already revealed the extent of then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s campaign to discredit King. The FBI wiretapped his home and office phones, planted bugs in hotel rooms, and enlisted informants to gather information. The agency’s counterintelligence program, known as COINTELPRO, was designed to monitor, discredit, and disrupt civil rights activists and other perceived "subversives."

The King children called Hoover’s operation a “predatory and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign.” They further stated, “These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice.”

Dr. King faced rising hostility even after the Civil Rights Movement achieved major legislative victories, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He increasingly focused on economic inequality and opposition to the Vietnam War — stances that intensified government scrutiny. Many establishment figures viewed King as a communist sympathizer, particularly after he began speaking out against capitalism and U.S. foreign policy.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, while supporting a sanitation workers' strike — a reflection of his growing focus on economic justice.

James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to King’s assassination in 1969 but later recanted and claimed he was set up. Until his death in 1998, Ray maintained his innocence. Coretta Scott King and other members of the King family called for further investigation, prompting Attorney General Janet Reno to reopen the case in 1998. However, the Justice Department concluded that there was no evidence to contradict the original judicial finding that Ray was responsible for King’s murder

The release of the FBI files on King comes amid broader controversy around declassified documents. Trump had earlier unsealed files related to the JFK assassination in March and portions of Robert F. Kennedy’s files in April. The move is also seen as a response to public criticism over the administration’s handling of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Trump recently directed the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony from the Epstein investigation, but did not authorize the full unsealing of case files.

Historians, researchers, and journalists are now preparing to comb through the newly released Martin Luther King Jr. files for fresh insights, though the King family warns that without proper context, these records risk being misinterpreted or sensationalized.

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