Trump Admin Releases MLK’s Files Despite Family Objection

Despite protests from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s family and the civil rights group he once led, the Trump administration has made public records of the FBI’s surveillance of the slain civil rights icon.

Why it matters: The move pits President Trump’s determination to release documents the government has kept secret for more than a half-century against the family’s lingering pain over how J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI spied on King and tried to intimidate and humiliate him.

{snip}

Driving the news: Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard released on Monday over 230,000 pages of documents related to the 1968 assassination of MLK, the agency announced.

{snip}

Yes, but: King’s two surviving adult children, in a statement, asked that “those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”

{snip}

Between the lines: The promise of complete disclosure alarmed the King family, who were hurt in 2019 by the release of FBI files that alleged sordid details about King’s sex life, a family friend said.

{snip}