Washington DC [US], July 22 (HBTV): US President Donald Trump has released files related to the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, despite opposition from most of King’s family, local media reported.

More than 6,000 documents, totaling nearly a quarter-million pages, were posted to the website of the National Archives late Monday afternoon, in what the administration hailed as a triumph of transparency, according to The New York Times. These documents do not include FBI wiretap recordings of King and other materials that remain under court seal until 2027, experts cited by the outlet said.

According to Trump administration officials, the files include notes on investigative leads, interviews with individuals who knew King's assassin, James Earl Ray, and previously unreleased details about the involvement of foreign intelligence services during the manhunt for Ray. Although Ray pleaded guilty to King’s murder, he later recanted the plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998.

Approximately 200,000 of the pages released on Monday had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI initially gathered and handed them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

The New York Times report also noted King’s well-documented history of extramarital relationships. In response, King’s surviving children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, issued a statement on Monday condemning what they described as a ‘relentless’ and ‘deeply disturbing’ disinformation and surveillance campaign against their father. They urged both researchers and the public to consider the newly released files in the broader context of King’s contributions to American society.

In a press release, the Trump administration quoted Alveda King, King’s niece and a vocal supporter of Trump, who welcomed the move. ‘The declassification and release of these documents are a historic step towards the truth that the American people deserve,’ she said, as cited in The New York Times.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Center, headed by Bernice King, also issued a statement regarding the document release. ‘And so, as we prepare for a heightened focus on Dr. King, we underscore the work central to Dr. King's dream: engaging Kingian Nonviolence, which The King Center has rebranded as Nonviolence365, for the strategic eradication of the Triple Evils of racism, poverty, and militarism,’ the statement read. ‘We invite the global citizenry to join us in working to rid our “World House” of these interconnected, debilitating conundrums. This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace.’

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated that the release of the documents was in compliance with an executive order issued by Trump in January.

(ANI)