Trump Administration Releases Files on Martin Luther King Jr.'S Assassination
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who announced the move, said the files include 'discussion of potential leads, internal FBI memos detailing the progress of the case, information about James Earl Ray's former cellmate who stated he discussed with Ray an alleged assassination plot, and more.' She said the files released Monday had not previously been digitized and were shared with minimal redactions.
King's son Martin Luther King III and daughter Bernice A. King wrote in a statement that they 'object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods' and warned against people sharing FBI surveillance of their father in the files.
'We strongly condemn any attempts to misuse these documents in ways intended to undermine our father's legacy and the significant achievements of the movement,' they wrote. '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.'
The King children said that the files 'must be viewed within their full historical context,' that their father 'was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by' then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
The release of the King documents on Monday comes as Democrats and some members of Trump's base have demanded the release of a different trove of records, those related to the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. Trump on Thursday told the Justice Department to seek the release of 'all pertinent' grand jury testimony, following the administration's announcement earlier this month that it would not release the files from the case. On Monday, Bernice A. King said on X: 'Now, do the Epstein files.'
King's niece Alveda King appeared to take a different view from King's son and daughter, saying in a statement that 'the declassification and release of these documents are a historic step towards the truth.'
Ray was convicted of the assassination of King after fleeing the country and being captured abroad, and Gabbard said the documents include CIA records outlining 'overseas intelligence on the international hunt for the prime suspect.' But the King children reaffirmed that they believe someone else was the shooter and that Ray was set up to take the fall.
'As we review these newly released files, we will assess whether they offer additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted,' the Kings said. They asked for people engaging with the files to 'do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief.'
Trump signed an executive order in January directing the release of the assassination records of King and President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy. Last month, a federal judge said it could be a 'long journey' toward releasing the King FBI surveillance records, and at the time, King's children and the King-founded civil rights organization the Southern Christian Leadership Conference opposed the unconditional public release of information compiled by the FBI.
In a 1977 lawsuit settlement, the government gave the National Archives tapes, transcripts, wiretap logs and other records of surveillance at King's home in Atlanta and other offices. They were to remain under seal for 50 years, until Jan. 31, 2027, according to the Justice Department filing. No surveillance-related records were immediately found in a review of the files released Monday.
Coretta King received a letter in 1964 that also contained alleged tape recordings of her husband having sex with other women, a letter that the FBI later confirmed was directed by Hoover, though the wiretaps were approved by then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, a Democrat. News reporters were offered the material at the time, but all refused to publish it. Later that year, King was given the Nobel Peace Prize.
'Hoover was so angry, he had hate in his heart,' Martin Luther King III told The Post in 2018. 'Certainly he hated Dad. He had a vehement hatred of folks of color.'
As a result, the King family always felt the FBI was involved in the assassination, and more recently feared the bureau or the Trump administration would release such salacious material in an attempt to sully the civil rights leader's reputation. It could not immediately be determined whether any related items were in the massive release Monday.
Numerous civil rights leaders told The Washington Post in 2018 that they did not believe Ray had killed King, and King's son Dexter King met with Ray in prison in 1997 to tell him the family believed in his innocence. Ray initially pleaded guilty, then tried to withdraw his plea days later. The move was rejected.
The late civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and the late Rev. James Lawson, one of King's mentors, all told The Post that they did not think Ray had shot King.
'I think there was a major conspiracy to remove Doctor King from the American scene,' Lewis said in 2018. 'I don't know what happened, but the truth of what happened to Dr. King should be made available for history's sake.'
King's family hired a New York lawyer, William Pepper, who had been friendly with King since the early 1960s. Pepper filed a civil suit in Memphis on their behalf alleging a government conspiracy that also involved Loyd Jowers, who owned the bar on the first floor of the rooming house where Ray stayed. A jury in 1999 found Jowers liable in the killing.
'There is abundant evidence,' Coretta King said after the verdict, 'of a major, high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband.' She said the jury found the mafia and various government agencies 'were deeply involved in the assassination. … Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame.'
That led King's family to appeal to President Bill Clinton to reinvestigate the case, and then-Attorney General Janet Reno created a new probe led by assistant attorney general Barry Kowalski. Kowalski found that Jowers had changed his story repeatedly and told The Post that 'our thorough investigation, just like four official investigations before it, found no credible or reliable evidence that Doctor King was killed by conspirators who framed James Earl Ray.'
Author James Douglass, who covered the 1999 trial and has written extensively about the assassinations of King and other American leaders, said Monday he had not reviewed the files, but 'frankly, I think we knew more than enough long ago to know that the United States government killed Dr. Martin Luther King.'
No documents implicating government agents could be immediately found. Ray claimed that he had been manipulated by an unknown man whom he knew as 'Raul' to be in Memphis on April 4, 1968. But others have pointed out that Ray appeared to be stalking King in the weeks before the shooting, driving from Los Angeles to Atlanta, and he carried a map of Atlanta with the church and residence of King circled.
Ray also bought a rifle on March 30, 1968, in Alabama, then returned to Atlanta. When news reports indicated that King would be heading to Memphis to participate in another march to support the sanitation workers' strike there, Ray drove to Memphis.
The rifle and some binoculars were found in the doorway of a store near the boardinghouse where Ray stayed soon after the shooting, with Ray's fingerprints on them.
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