Trump dumps a pile of MLK files. Why not the Epstein files?

Nearly six decades after the assassination of United States civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) in 1968, the White House has released more than 230,000 pages of once-classified files relating to his murder.

After becoming president in January, Donald Trump signed an executive order declassifying documents related to the assassinations of King, former President John F Kennedy and former Senator Robert F Kennedy.

The MLK files largely reinforce the longstanding official conclusion that James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin, acted alone with no conclusive evidence of a broader conspiracy.

The files released on Monday add to the well-documented record of FBI surveillance and harassment of King, including efforts to discredit and intimidate him in the years leading up to his assassination.

So what do the MLK files offer? What was the FBI operation against him? And why has Trump released them now?

What are the MLK files?

The MLK files are the trove of documents related to both the FBI’s surveillance of King throughout the 1950s and 1960s and the investigation into his assassination in 1968. The records were put under a court-imposed seal in 1977 after the FBI compiled them and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

The files include internal memos, wiretap transcripts, informant reports and correspondence from then-FBI Director J Edgar Hoover and senior officials, reflecting how the FBI viewed King as a political threat due to his civil rights activism.

A major focus is the FBI’s covert campaign to discredit and intimidate King, which included bugging his hotel rooms, infiltrating his inner circle and even sending him an anonymous letter urging him to commit suicide in 1964.

The FBI also falsely labelled King as a communist sympathiser based on his ties to former Communist Party member Stanley Levison, using this claim to justify illegal surveillance and attempts to destroy his reputation.

These operations were part of the FBI’s wider COINTELPRO programme, which targeted activists and dissenters across the country.

President Donald Trump, flanked by Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House [File: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images]

Did the files reveal anything new?

The newly released MLK files do not reveal any dramatic new evidence about his assassination or secret plots.

The files largely reinforce what was already known: Ray was convicted as the lone shooter, and the FBI engaged in an extensive surveillance campaign.

The communications also suggest the FBI considered multiple suspects beyond Ray but dropped those leads. Ray confessed to killing King in 1969 but later recanted and claimed he was framed.

Before being arrested, Ray was on the run for nearly two months. He fled to Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom before being extradited to the US, where he was convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in April 1998 from complications related to kidney and liver disease.

The documents reaffirm that the FBI, under the direction of Hoover, viewed King as a subversive figure and engaged in extensive surveillance and disinformation campaigns against him. These tactics, which included wiretaps and anonymous threats, have been public knowledge for decades, particularly after the findings of the US Senate’s Church Committee in the 1970s.

The new files appear to confirm this history while adding more granular details. They provide additional internal records and memos that reinforce previous accounts of the bureau’s efforts to discredit King and monitor his activities.

Notably, the release does not contain new evidence implicating anyone beyond Ray in King’s assassination.

But King scholars would like to see the information the FBI was discussing and circulating as part of its investigation, Ryan Jones, director of history, interpretation and curatorial services at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee told The Associated Press news agency.

“That’s critical given the fact the American public, at that time, was unaware that the FBI that is involved in the investigation was leading a smear campaign to discredit the same man while he was alive,” Jones was quoted as saying. “They were the same bureau who was receiving notices of assassination attempts against King and ignored them.”

What is the civil rights movement?

The civil rights movement was a decades-long struggle, primarily in the US during the 1950s and 1960s, aimed at ending racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans.

Rooted in centuries of resistance to slavery and racial injustice, the movement gained momentum after World War II as Black Americans demanded equal treatment under the law and full access to political, social and economic rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.

Led by figures such as Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, King and countless grassroots activists, the movement employed strategies ranging from peaceful protests and legal challenges to civil disobedience and mass mobilisation.

Landmark events like the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama; the March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech; and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, also in Alabama, pressured lawmakers and reshaped public opinion. These efforts led to major legislative victories, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A person holds an image of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr during commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on August 26, 2023 [Andrew Harnik/AP]

What was this FBI operation?

The FBI’s operation against King was primarily conducted under the Counterintelligence Program, known as COINTELPRO, a covert initiative launched by the FBI under Hoover.

Initiated in 1956, COINTELPRO targeted various organisations, but its focus on King and the broader civil rights movement intensified in the early 1960s, particularly as King’s prominence grew.

The FBI labelled King a national security threat, suspecting communist influence within the civil rights movement although no such ties were ever substantiated.

Declassified documents outline a systematic campaign to monitor King’s activities, undermine his leadership and tarnish his public image through surveillance and psychological tactics. Wiretaps were placed on King’s home and office phones, and hidden microphones were installed in hotel rooms where he stayed.

These efforts, authorised by Attorney General Robert F Kennedy in 1963, were often abused to collect salacious details about King’s private life, particularly extramarital affairs.

In 1964, the FBI sent an anonymous letter to King accompanied by an audiotape it pulled from bugged hotel rooms that allegedly was evidence of his affairs and urged him to commit suicide to avoid public disgrace.

The FBI’s operation against King, which continued until his assassination in 1968, reflected Hoover’s animosity and the agency’s broader paranoia about civil rights activism disrupting the status quo.

“He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign,” a King family statement said.

Why did Trump release them now?

The Trump administration released the MLK files despite opposition from his family and the political group he once led.

In a statement, Attorney General Pamela Bondi said: “The American people deserve answers decades after the horrific assassination of one of our nation’s great leaders.”

Trump’s order for the files to be released said it was in the “national interest” to release the records. “Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth,” it said.

Bondi hosted Alveda King, a conservative commentator and MLK’s niece, at the Department of Justice to commemorate the release of the files. Alveda said she was grateful to Trump “for delivering on their pledge of transparency in the release of these documents on the assassination” of King.

The King family said in its statement that it had hoped to get an opportunity to review the files as a family before their public release.

In a statement released on Monday, King’s children called their father’s case a “captivating public curiosity for decades” but emphasised that “these files must be viewed within their full historical context.”

“We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief,” the statement said.

From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 12, 2000 [Davidoff Studios via Getty Images]

Has Trump released other files?

Before releasing the MLK files, Trump declassified thousands of documents related to the assassinations of former President Kennedy (JFK) and his younger brother, Robert F Kennedy, calling it a push for transparency.

In March, the National Archives released tens of thousands of pages concerning JFK’s 1963 assassination, including previously redacted FBI and CIA records. These documents offered further detail on the intelligence tracking of JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and US surveillance efforts during the Cold War.

After that, from April to June, the Trump administration released more than 70,000 pages related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Kennedy. These records included FBI field reports, informant files and internal memos.

While many hailed this latest release, Trump also faced criticism from other leaders who called it a political distraction at a time when pressure has been mounting over the president’s handling of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein files.

The Epstein files detail the life and connections of the disgraced financier with deep ties to elite political, business and cultural circles. Calls for transparency have intensified after renewed demands from civil society, victims advocates and bipartisan lawmakers who argued that shielding the full extent of Epstein’s connections undermines justice and accountability.