Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter has urged Donald Trump to release the full, unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files after thousands of documents surrounding the civil rights activist’s assassination were unsealed.
Bernice King, 62, issued a blunt request to the president after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced the release of more than 230,000 pages tied to MLK’s 1968 murder, promising “complete transparency” over the case.
“Now, do the Epstein files,” King tweeted on Monday evening, along with a photograph of her father.
King, who was five when her father was assassinated, and her brother Martin Luther King III, said in a joint statement: “While we support transparency and historical accountability, we object to any attacks on our father’s legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods.”
Now, do the Epstein files. pic.twitter.com/rzlub3WucQ
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) July 21, 2025
Some civil rights activists rejected claims that the Trump administration was pursuing true transparency.
The King Center, which is now led by Bernice King, framed the release of documents as a distraction.
“It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society,” it said.
Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that Trump’s unsealing of the MLK assassination files was “not about transparency or justice.”
“It’s a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the Maga base,” he added.
The documents on the murder of the civil rights leader were posted as Trump faces mounting pressure to release all documents related to Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation.
The president continues to face MAGA backlash after his administration concluded earlier this month that there was no evidence the convicted sex offender maintained a “client list.”
Trump has repeatedly framed the issue as a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats.
The Democrats, in return, said that Trump is attempting to distract from the scandal, including by peddling a conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama orchestrated the Russia investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Monday that Trump is “running scared.”
“Why do we think President Joe Biden or President Barack Obama's names are being invoked?,” he said. “Because Donald Trump is running scared.”
A day after the Wall Street Journal’s bombshell report that Trump allegedly sent a bawdy 50th birthday card to Epstein, the president asked the court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the prosecution of Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
A former prosecutor said that the document release is unlikely to produce much, if anything, and is a move to “present himself as if he’s doing something here and it really is nothing.”
