The interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia requested the FBI unseal its surveillance records of Martin Luther King Jr. earlier than they are required to be released, arguing the records that President Donald Trump ordered the release of have been “shielded from the public for long enough,” The New York Times reported.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr speaking before crowd of 25,000 Selma To Montgomery, Alabama civil rights ... [+]
The request was filed Monday by Trump’s appointed interim U.S. attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, and said there is “strong public interest in understanding the truth about the assassination” of MLK Jr., according to the Times.
The files had been set to be sealed until early 2027, after a judge in 1977 ruled the surveillance records would be given to the National Archives and remain sealed for 50 years, CBS News reported.
Martin also reportedly said in the filing he was following through on an executive order Trump signed on one of his first days back in office that called for the declassification of records related to the assassinations of King, former President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Forbes has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C. for comment and confirmation.
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The FBI surveilled MLK Jr. under the guidance of then-Director J. Edgar Hoover and at least in part out of concern that he had ties to communism, according to multiple reports. The FBI bugged King’s hotel rooms, tapped his phones and placed informants in his closest circles, Time reported. It’s not fully known what is in the sealed records, though in 2019 David J. Garrow—who had previously written a book about King and the FBI’s surveillance of him—published an article that gave insight into how the FBI surveilled King, and also his private sex life.
After Trump signed the executive order to declassify the records, King’s family released a statement through the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center that said King’s assassination was “a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years” and they “hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.” Rev. Al Sharpton, who is friends with the family, told The New York Times the family had asked Trump’s administration for a meeting to discuss the records before they are released, adding, “there is a concern that not everything in those files will be truthful.”
Trump has not said much about the content of the King records, though he said in an interview last week the release of the records he ordered to be declassified was “moving along pretty rapidly.” Speaking to reporters after he signed the executive order calling for the records on the assassinations of all three men to be released, Trump said, “everything will be revealed,” the Associated Press reported.
How many records will be released on King, or when they will be released. Trump’s executive order stated the director of national intelligence and attorney general should review the records and present a plan to him within 45 days of the order being signed, which would have been March 9.
The National Archives and Trump administration on Tuesday released the remaining documents about Kennedy’s assassination that had not yet been made public, as part of Trump’s promise to release “all” records about it, though media reports said there is not much new information in the thousands of pages of documents that were released.
King was assassinated in 1968 while standing on his balcony at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was visiting to support striking sanitation workers. The FBI investigated his death and determined James Earl Ray was the sole gunman, though conspiracies about FBI involvement have permeated the conversation around King’s assassination for decades.
Justice Department Moves to Unseal MLK Jr.’s FBI Surveillance Records (New York Times)
Trump Administration Releases JFK Files (Forbes)
Trump Declassifying All JFK, RFK And MLK Jr. Assassination Records—Here's What That Means (Forbes)