Overview

• The administration published over 230,000 pages of previously sealed MLK assassination and surveillance documents online with minimal redactions
• The records expose COINTELPRO-era tactics under J. Edgar Hoover, including wiretaps, bugged hotel rooms and informant reports targeting King
• Files contain CIA intelligence on the global manhunt for James Earl Ray and his discussions of an alleged assassination plot with a former cellmate
• The disclosure was expedited from a 2027 court deadline by Trump’s January executive order and coordinated by the DOJ, ODNI, CIA and National Archives
• Critics argue the timing diverts attention from the administration’s refusal to release Jeffrey Epstein case files