January 26, 2025
MLK’s Family Responds To Trump Declassifying King Assassination File
Bernice King has requested Trump let the family see the files before they are released to the public.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the declassification of federal records related to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The family of Dr. King has one request and asks that the president allow them to see the documents before they are released to the public, as per his executive order.
The executive order mandates that within 55 days, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General present a plan for the “full and complete release” of records of King’s assassination.
At the time of the executive order signing pertaining to the classified documents, Trump said that after many Americans waiting decades for the release of the information, finally, “Everything will be revealed.”
Following the public showing off signing the executive orders Dr. King’s daughter, Bernice King, took to X to make a statement on her father’s file in particular being declassified. She requested that Trump allow the King family to see the files on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before they were shared with the public in their entirety.
Bernice King wrote, “Today, our family has learned that President Trump has ordered the declassification of the remaining records about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and our father, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For us, the assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years.”
She added, “We hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family before its public release.”
Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, a relative to JFK and RFK, took to X to slam Trump for an overly sensationalized executive order.
Schlossberg wrote, “JFK conspiracy theories—The truth is a lot sadder than the myth — a tragedy that didn’t need to happen. Not part of an inevitable grand scheme. Declassification is using JFK as a political prop when he’s not here to punch back. There’s nothing heroic about it.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot in Memphis in a public assassination on a hotel balcony on April 4, 1968. The shooter was identified as James Earl Ray, but King’s surviving family has been seeking the truth about all the details of his shooting to this day.
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