US president Donald Trump has defied the family of Martin Luther King Jr. by declassifying the FBI's assassination files on him.
Having already released similar content to the public pertaining to both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy this year, the Trump administration is now facing scrutiny over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein records, so by bringing MLK's documents forward by two years - they were supposed to be sealed until 2027 - they're seemingly papering over the cracks.
The files include an estimated 200,000 surveillance pages that had been kept from public consumption since 1977, which is back when the FBI originally turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Yesterday (July 21), they were uploaded to a government website.
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The late civil rights leader's children Martin III and Bernice were notified in advance and had their own teams review the docs.
They wrote in a joint statement: "The release of these files must be viewed within their full historical context. During our father's lifetime, 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."
Martin and Bernice, who were aged just 10 and 5 when their father was murdered, also urged readers to engage with the files empathetically, and with 'restraint and respect for our family's continuing grief'.
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"The intent of the government's COINTELPRO campaign was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle, and destroy Dr. King's reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement," their statement added.
"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, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo."
The pair also reiterated the family's long-held belief that James Earl Ray - the man convicted of assassinating their father - was not solely responsible for his death.
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In their minds, King was bumped off as part of a conspiracy involving 'unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies'.
"While we support transparency and historical accountability, we object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods," they continued.
"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. 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."
Meanwhile, the King Center, which was founded by King's widow Coretta and now fronted by his daughter, released its own statement on the file declassification.
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"It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society,” they said, linking those challenges to MLK's efforts. "This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace."
Topics: Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Politics, US News
Dan Seddon