The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has made public a trove of documents related to the assassination of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., defying concerns raised by members of the King family.
The files were officially released on Monday, nearly six decades after King’s death.
Tulsi Gabbard, serving as Director of National Intelligence, confirmed the release in a statement, saying, “The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination.”
According to Gabbard, approximately 230,000 pages of documents have been made available, with only limited redactions to protect personal privacy.
President Trump, who returned to office earlier this year, had previously signed an executive order mandating the declassification of documents tied to several historic political assassinations from the 1960s. This includes the 1963 killing of President John F. Kennedy, the 1968 murder of his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the April 1968 assassination of Dr. King.
In line with that directive, the National Archives released records related to JFK’s assassination in March and followed with RFK’s in April. The release of the MLK documents marks the final installment in the series of disclosures.
