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Trump administration releases flood of FBI records on Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump administration releases flood of FBI records on Martin Luther King Jr.

CBC5 days ago
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The Trump administration has released records of the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate's family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.
The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
In a lengthy statement released Monday, King's two living children, Martin Luther King III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father's assassination has been a "captivating public curiosity for decades." But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter, urging that the files "be viewed within their full historical context."
The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access. It was not immediately clear Monday whether the documents would shed any new light on King's life, the civil rights movement or his murder.
"As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met — an absence our family has endured for over 57 years," they wrote. "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."
They also repeated the family's long-held contention that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, if at all.
Bernice King was five years old when her father was killed. Martin III was 10.
Trump orders files on assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK to be declassified | Canada Tonight
6 months ago
'Unprecedented' disclosure: Gabbard
A statement from the office of U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure "unprecedented" and said many of the records had been digitized for the first time to make it possible.
She praised U.S. President Donald Trump for pushing the issue.
Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to U.S. president John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with files associated with the 1968 assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and King.
The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April.
The announcement from Gabbard's office included a statement from Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, who is an outspoken conservative and has broken from King's children on various topics — including the FBI files. Alveda King said she was "grateful to President Trump" for his "transparency."
Separately Monday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's social media account featured a picture of the attorney general with Alveda King in her office.
Attempt to distract from Epstein: Sharpton
Besides fulfilling Trump's executive order, the latest release serves as another alternative headline for the president as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration's handling of records concerning the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of trafficking underage girls.
Trump last Friday ordered the U.S. Justice Department to release grand jury testimony relating to the Epstein case, but stopped short of unsealing the entire file.
Bernice King and Martin Luther King III did not mention Trump in their statement Monday.
Some civil rights activists were not so sparing.
"Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "It's a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unravelling of his credibility among the MAGA base."
WATCH | Why Trump's base is disappointed over Epstein files:
Semafor's David Weigel on deepening disappointment among Trump loyalists over the Epstein files
2 days ago
Get the latest on CBCNews.ca, the CBC News App, and CBC News Network for breaking news and analysis
The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until U.S. Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order ahead of its expiration date.
Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents to find new information about King's assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., where he was aiding striking sanitation workers.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the civil rights movement blossomed, opposed the release.
They, along with King's family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, tapping their offices and phone lines with the aim of discrediting them and their movement.
It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others that he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover's bureau wiretapped King's telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to get information against him.
"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 (FBI)," the King children said in their statement.
The Kings said they "support transparency and historical accountability" but "object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods."
King's children suggest Ray was set up
Ray plead guilty to assassinating King. He later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998.
Members of King's family, and others, have long questioned whether Ray acted alone, or if he was even involved.
Coretta Scott King asked for the probe to be reopened, and in 1998, then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno directed the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department to take a new look. The Justice Department said it "found nothing to disturb the 1969 judicial determination that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King."
In their latest statement, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III repeated their assertions that Ray was set up, pointing to a 1999 civil case in which a Memphis jury in a wrongful death case concluded that Martin Luther King Jr. had been the target of a conspiracy.
"As we review these newly released files," the Kings said, "we will assess whether they offer additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted."
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Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid Israel, which controls access to Gaza, has said that Hamas steals food supplies from UN and other organizations to use to control the civilian population and boost its finances, including by jacking up the prices of the goods and reselling them to civilians. Asked about the USAID report, the Israeli military told Reuters that its allegations are based on intelligence reports that Hamas militants seized cargoes by "both covertly and overtly" embedding themselves on aid trucks. Those reports also show that Hamas has diverted up to 25 per cent of aid supplies to its fighters or sold them to civilians, the Israeli military said, adding that GHF has ended the militants' control of aid by distributing it directly to civilians. Responding to the New York Times report, Shoshani said: "It has been well documented throughout the war how Hamas systematically exploited humanitarian aid to fund terrorist activities in various ways." 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Aid groups required to report losses The 156 reports of theft or losses of supplies reviewed by BHA were filed by UN agencies and other humanitarian groups working in Gaza as a condition of receiving U.S. aid funds. The second source familiar with the matter said that after receiving reports of U.S.-funded aid thefts or losses, USAID staff followed up with partner organizations to try to determine if there was Hamas involvement. Those organizations also would "redirect or pause" aid distributions if they learned that Hamas was in the vicinity, the source said. Aid organizations working in Gaza also are required to vet their personnel, sub-contractors and suppliers for ties to extremist groups before receiving U.S. funds, a condition that the State Department waived in approving $30 million US for GHF last month. 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Of the 156 incidents of loss or theft reported, 63 were attributed to unknown perpetrators, 35 to armed actors, 25 to unarmed people, 11 directly to Israeli military action, 11 to corrupt subcontractors, five to aid group personnel "engaging in corrupt activities" and six to "others," a category that accounted for "commodities stolen in unknown circumstances," according to the slide presentation. The armed actors "included gangs and other miscellaneous individuals who may have had weapons," said a slide. Another slide said "a review of all 156 incidents found no affiliations with" U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, of which Hamas is one. "The majority of incidents could not be definitively attributed to a specific actor," said another slide. "Partners often largely discovered the commodities had been stolen in transit without identifying the perpetrator." WATCH | Family-run clans work to secure aid convoys in Gaza: Gaza clans come together to secure aid convoys 29 days ago Family-run clans take up arms to secure aid convoys amid ongoing chaos at distribution sites and around trucks. It is possible there were classified intelligence reports on Hamas aid thefts, but BHA staff lost access to classified systems in the dismantlement of USAID, said a slide. However, a source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments told Reuters that they knew of no U.S. intelligence reports detailing Hamas aid diversions and that Washington was relying on Israeli reports. The BHA analysis found that the Israeli military "directly or indirectly caused" a total of 44 incidents in which U.S.-funded aid was lost or stolen. Those included the 11 attributed to direct Israeli military actions, such as airstrikes or orders to Palestinians to evacuate areas of the war-torn enclave. Losses indirectly attributed to Israeli military included cases where they compelled aid groups to use delivery routes with high risks of theft or looting, ignoring requests for alternative routes, the analysis said.

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