Trump administration releases FBI records on MLK Jr. despite his family’s opposition

By BILL BARROW Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The Trump administration has issued records of the FBI s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate s family and the civil rights group that he led until his assassination The release involves an estimated pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration Related Articles Texas Republicans aim to redraw House districts at Trump s urging but there s a hazard FDA names former pharmaceutical company executive to oversee US drug effort Did money or politics cause Colbert cancellation Either way the economics are tough for TV Hegseth tells lawmakers about plan to detain immigrants at bases in Indiana and New Jersey Trump sues Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over reporting on Epstein ties King s family including his two living children Martin III and Bernice were given advance notice of the release and had their own teams reviewing the records ahead of the constituents disclosure In a lengthy announcement circulated Monday the two living King children called their father s circumstance a captivating masses curiosity for decades But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter and urged that these files must be viewed within their full historical context President Donald Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F Kennedy s assassination When Trump took office in January he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records along with those associated with Robert F Kennedy s and King s assassinations The administration unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed selected RFK files in April