Thousands of FBI files relating to Martin Luther King have been released despite opposition from his family.

Donald Trump ordered the publication of more than 240,000 pages of records relating to the FBI’s surveillance of the slain Nobel laureate before his 1968 assassination

The documents have been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

The records were released as the US president attempts to mollify supporters angry over his administration’s handling of records concerning the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr Trump’s friendship with Epstein has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks.

King’s family, including his two living children, Martin III and Bernice, were given advance notice and had their own teams reviewing the records before the public disclosure.