A federal judge in Washington has signaled he may accelerate the release of documents tied to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in response to President Trump's executive order. But during a Wednesday hearing, Judge Richard Leon made clear that any move would be a slow process, prioritizing privacy and careful review. He said it could still take years, per the Washington Post. A 1977 court order currently keeps the MLK documents sealed until 2027, though President Trump signed an executive order in January urging the unsealing of records tied to the civil rights leader and other assassinated figures.
Judge Leon said he would now ask the National Archives to provide him a private inventory of the sealed files to see how materials directly related to King's assassination and the FBI's subsequent investigation are organized, per the New York Times. The government itself hasn't recently reviewed this stash. The hearing came about because the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights group closely linked with King, sued to keep the records sealed for now. The SCLC argues that early release is an attempt to harm the legacy of Dr. King and undermine the civil rights movement.
Justice Department attorney Johnny Walker proposed that department agents do a first pass on the material, filter out sensitive information, and then let the SCLC and the court review what might be safely released. He said the government would avoid disclosing potentially damaging details harvested from FBI surveillance files. Judge Leon suggested that if both sides could jointly agree on which documents to release, he could expedite the process. For now, he encouraged continued dialogue between the involved parties, saying open communication would benefit everyone, including the president, per the Times.
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