The Trump administration released over 230,000 pages of documents pertaining to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 04, 1968. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the release “unprecedented,” citing President Trump's commitment to transparency. The documents, sealed since 1977, were part of a larger declassification effort encompassing files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. King's children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, were given advance notice and reviewed the files before public release, emphasizing the need to view them within historical context. They highlighted a campaign by former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to discredit Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement.

The release comes amid criticism of the administration's handling of Jeffrey Epstein records. Social media users speculated the King files release was a distraction tactic. The King family did not mention Trump in their statement, and the administration had not commented as of late Monday. The release was expedited from the originally scheduled 2027 release date following a request from Justice Department lawyers in June to a federal judge.

Impact Statement: The release of these documents may influence public understanding of the assassination and the FBI's actions during the Civil Rights era, though the immediate impact remains unclear.