The Donald Trump administration is currently under fire for not releasing the files related to the infamous s-x predator, Jeffrey Epstein. Now, amid a civil war with some of their own loyalists, the administration has found a new way to swing attention away from the Epstein files. On July 22, Trump released over 240,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The documents, which are now being dubbed MLK files, also consist of records from the FBI.
The files were declassified through the official website of the National Archives. It also includes records of how the Nobel Peace Prize winner was surveilled by the FBI, which wanted to discredit his civil rights movement. Before diving further, it is important to have a brief overview of his activities and assassination.
Martin Luther King Jr was vocal about equal rights for African Americans in the United States. However, with time, his attention also extended to economic issues and calls for peace. On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, a tragic twist that shook the nation back then.
As reported by Reuters, the FBI issued surveillance on him, even going to such extent of wiretapping his phones. This move from the bureau was due to a false suspicion that he had ties to Communism during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although in the later years, the suspicions were withdrawn, the FBI kept the files on MLK from the 1950s and 1960s.
Some of these records were made public over the years, while some were heavily redacted or classified. The Trump administration-released documents also contain HSCA files, which are from the late 1970s investigation by the House Select Committee. The HSCA reopened King’s assassination case along with the murder of John F. Kennedy.
Today, after nearly 60 years of questions surrounding the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are releasing 230,000 MLK assassination files, available now at https://t.co/71P3p5jBgK. The documents include details about the FBI’s investigation into the assassination… pic.twitter.com/l96t9tgYmn
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) July 21, 2025
Although a man named James Earl Ray was convicted of killing MLK, the HSCA said that his assassination could have been a result of a conspiracy. According to the files, the jury concluded that a local businessman named Lloyd Jowers and others were part of the scheme against him. However, the verdict is often not accepted by historians and even government agencies.
Following the release, Martin Luther King Jr.’s family urged everyone to engage with the files with “empathy, restraint, and respect,” while condemning “any attempts to misuse the documents.”
“Now more than ever, we must honor his sacrifice by committing ourselves to the realization of his dream – a society rooted in compassion, unity, and equality,” his family said.
