By BILL BARROW, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.

The release involves more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

King’s family, including his two living children, Martin III and Bernice, were given advance notice of the release and had their own teams reviewing the records ahead of the public disclosure.

In a lengthy statement released Monday, the two living King children called their father’s case a “captivating public curiosity for decades.” But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter and urged that “these files must be viewed within their full historical context.”

“As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met — an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,” they wrote. “We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”

Related Articles

Lawsuit challenges restrictions on Head Start for kids in the US illegally

As Trump’s raids ramp up, a Texas region’s residents stay inside — even when they need medical care

Republicans can’t stop talking about Joe Biden. That may be a problem

Texas Republicans aim to redraw House districts at Trump’s urging, but there’s a risk

FDA names former pharmaceutical company executive to oversee US drug program

Bernice King was five years old when her father was killed. Martin III was 10.

President Donald Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with those associated with Robert F. Kennedy’s and King’s 1968 assassinations.

The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April.

Besides fulfilling the intent of his January executive order, the latest release serves as another alternative headline for Trump as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration’s handling of records concerning the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019, during Trump’s first presidency. Trump last Friday ordered the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file.

The King records, meanwhile, were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order ahead of its expiration date.

Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents to find new information about his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the Civil Rights Movement blossomed, opposed the release. They, along with King’s family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, tapping their offices and phone lines with the aim of discrediting them and their movement.

It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others that he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover’s bureau wiretapped King’s telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to get information against him.

“He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” the King children said in their statement.

“The intent of the government’s COINTELPRO campaign was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement,” they continued. “These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo.”

Opposition to King intensified even after the Civil Rights Movement compelled Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to enact the Civil Right Act of 1964 and the Voting Right Act of 1965. After those landmark victories, King turned much of his attention to economic justice and international peace. He was an outspoken critic of rapacious capitalism and the Vietnam War. King argued that political rights alone were not enough in an uneven economy. Many establishment figures like Hoover viewed King as a communist threat.

King was assassinated as he was aiding striking sanitation workers in Memphis, part of his explicit turn toward economic justice.

James Earl Ray plead guilty to assassinating King. He later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998.

Members of King’s family, and others, have questioned whether Ray acted alone, or if he was even involved. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, asked for the probe to be reopened, and in 1998, then-Attorney General Janet Reno directed the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department to take a new look. The Justice Department said it “found nothing to disturb the 1969 judicial determination that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King.”

By ANNIE MA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A coalition of 21 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the Trump administration’s restrictions on social services for immigrants in the country illegally, including the federal preschool program Head Start, health clinics and adult education.

Individual public benefits, such as food stamps and college financial aid, have been largely unavailable to people in the country without legal status, but the new rules and guidance from the administration curbed their access to community-level programs that receive federal money.

The lawsuit led by New York Attorney General Letitia James argues the government failed to follow the rulemaking process and did not provide required notice on conditions placed on federal funds. It also argues the changes will create significant harm.

“These programs work because they are open, accessible, and grounded in compassion,” James said in a statement. “This is a baseless attack on some of our country’s most effective and inclusive public programs, and we will not let it stand.”

Related Articles

Trump administration releases FBI records on MLK Jr. despite his family’s opposition

As Trump’s raids ramp up, a Texas region’s residents stay inside — even when they need medical care

Republicans can’t stop talking about Joe Biden. That may be a problem

Texas Republicans aim to redraw House districts at Trump’s urging, but there’s a risk

FDA names former pharmaceutical company executive to oversee US drug program

The rule changes rescinded a Clinton-era interpretation of federal laws on immigrants’ access to services. The restrictions were announced jointly earlier this month by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Education Department, the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice.

Implementing immigration documentation checks would place a significant burden on programs and in some cases would be unrealistic, the lawsuit said. The extra work would likely affect services provided by these programs to U.S. citizens, who are often from low-income backgrounds and depend on the services for health and education, the lawsuit said.

Head Start, a federal preschool program that provides developmental therapy, child care and preschool to families who are homeless or in poverty, has not asked participants to verify their immigration status in the past.

Some Head Start providers said they do not have the staff or resources to begin implementing such screening.

“It is likely that for some programs, the costs of compliance will be so high as to lead to the programs’ closure,” the lawsuit said. “Many Head Start programs are small entities that operate on razor-thin margins and are likely to close if facing a significant administrative burden.”

Other community-level programs affected by the rule change include mental health services in schools, crisis hotlines and substance use disorder treatment.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The man convicted in the 1979 killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz was awarded a new trial Monday as a federal appeals court overturned the guilty verdict in one of the nation’s most notorious missing child cases.

Pedro Hernandez has been serving 25 years to life in prison since his 2017 conviction. He had been arrested in 2012 after a decades-long, haunting search for answers in Etan’s disappearance, which happened on the first day he was allowed to walk alone to his school bus stop in New York City.

The appeals court said the trial judge gave a “clearly wrong” and “manifestly prejudicial” response to a jury note during Hernandez’s 2017 trial — his second. His first trial ended in a jury deadlock in 2015.

FILE – A newspaper with a photograph of Etan Patz is seen on May 28, 2012, at a makeshift memorial in the SoHo neighborhood of New York, where Patz lived before his disappearance on May 25, 1979. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

The court ordered Hernandez’s release unless the 64-year-old gets a new trial within “a reasonable period.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, said it was reviewing the decision. The trial predated current DA Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.

Harvey Fishbein, an attorney for Hernandez, declined to comment when reached Monday by phone.

A message seeking comment was sent to Etan’s parents. They spent decades pursuing an arrest, and then a conviction, in their son’s case and pressing to improve the handling of missing-child cases nationwide.

FILE – Pedro Hernandez appears in Manhattan criminal court with his attorney, Harvey Fishbein, Nov. 15, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, Pool, File)

Etan was among the first missing children pictured on milk cartons. His case contributed to an era of fear among American families, making anxious parents more protective of kids who many once allowed to roam and play unsupervised in their neighborhoods.

The Patzes’ advocacy helped establish a national missing-children hotline and made it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information about such cases. The May 25 anniversary of Etan’s disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day.

Etan’s case spurred a huge search and an enduring, far-flung investigation. But no trace of him was ever found. A civil court declared him dead in 2001.

Hernandez was a teenager working at a convenience shop in Etan’s downtown Manhattan neighborhood when the boy vanished. Police met him while canvassing the area but didn’t suspect him until they got a 2012 tip that he’d made remarks years earlier about having killed a child in New York.

FILE – Pedro Hernandez appears in Manhattan criminal court, Nov. 15, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, Pool, File)

Hernandez then confessed to police, saying he’d lured Etan into the store’s basement by promising the boy a soda and choked him because “something just took over me.” He said he put Etan, still alive, in a box that he left with curbside trash.

Hernandez’s lawyers said his confession was false, spurred by a mental illness that makes him confuse reality with imagination. He also has a very low IQ.

Related Articles

Jimmy Buffett’s widow accuses financial adviser of breaching fiduciary duty in $275M trust battle

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, ‘Cosby Show’ actor, dies in Costa Rica drowning

As Trump’s raids ramp up, a Texas region’s residents stay inside — even when they need medical care

Postal inspectors investigating fiery car crash at California post office as an intentional act

Ex-NYPD commissioner accuses NYC mayor of ‘character assassination’ in $10 million defamation claim

The trials happened in a New York state court. Etan’s appeal eventually wound into federal court and came to revolve around Hernandez’ police interrogation in 2012.

Police questioned Hernandez for seven hours — and they said he confessed — before they read him his rights and started recording the interrogation. Hernandez then repeated his admission on tape, at least twice.

During nine days of deliberations, jurors sent repeated queries about those statements. The last inquiry asked whether they had to disregard the two recorded confessions, if they concluded that the first one — given before the Miranda warning — was invalid.

The judge said no. The appeals court said the jury should have gotten a more thorough explanation of its options, which could have included disregarding all of the confessions as improperly obtained.

Associated Press writers Larry Neumeister in New York and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.

By FREIDA FRISARO, Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Jimmy Buffett ’s widow has accused her late husband’s financial adviser of failing to administer the singer’s multimillion-dollar trust in good faith and ignoring what she believed were her best interests for the $275 million estate.

Jane Buffett on Monday asked a judge in West Palm Beach, Florida, to stop Richard Mozenter from trying to remove her as a trustee and instead sought an order removing him from overseeing the estate, according to court papers.

Jimmy Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock and created a “Margaritaville” empire of restaurants and resorts, died Sept. 1, 2023, at 76.

His widow and Mozenter have since been embroiled in a battle over who controls the trust, with each accusing the other of mishandling funds in lawsuits filed in both California and Florida.

The dispute is similar to another going on with the estate of another beloved singer, Tony Bennett. Two of the late crooner’s daughters sued their brother over his handling of the family trust.

Related Articles

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, ‘Cosby Show’ actor, dies in Costa Rica drowning

As Trump’s raids ramp up, a Texas region’s residents stay inside — even when they need medical care

Postal inspectors investigating fiery car crash at California post office as an intentional act

Ex-NYPD commissioner accuses NYC mayor of ‘character assassination’ in $10 million defamation claim

Second suspect arrested in the shooting of an off-duty US customs officer in a Manhattan park

Jane Buffett’s filing on Monday accuses Mozenter of “repeatedly” breaching his fiduciary duty by failing to provide her with basic information about the trust’s assets and its investments while taking “unreasonable fees and costs in the context of the services provided.”

On May 30, Jane Buffett’s lawyers provided Mozenter’s lawyers a copy of a petition they planned to file in Los Angeles Superior Court if he did not resign as cotrustee by June 2, the filing states.

Mozenter’s counsel instead filed a petition June 2 in West Palm Beach, seeking Buffett’s removal as cotrustee, documents show. Jane Buffett’s complaint was filed June 3 in Los Angeles, where Mozenter is managing director at Gelfand, Rennert and Feldman LLC.

“Notably, Mr. Mozenter only brought this (and his other) retaliatory, baseless action after Mrs. Buffett had informed him that, absent his resignation, she would initiate litigation against him to seek his removal as co-trustee,” the complaint said.

Mozenter claimed in his lawsuit that Jimmy Buffett established the trust with Mozenter as an independent trustee because he was concerned about his wife’s “ability to manage and control his assets.”

The complaint filed Monday in Florida says the relationship between Jane Buffett and Mozenter is “untenable,” and asks the judge to remove Mozenter as cotrustee.

“Jane will not play into Mr. Mozenter’s hands by litigating this dispute in two separate courts across the country, which would drain the very trust money that Jimmy specifically set aside for her care,” said attorney Matt Porpora.

“Instead, Jane is bringing the fight to Florida, where she and Jimmy called home. Jane is confident she will prevail regardless of where her claims are heard, and her decision to move her claims from California to Florida illustrates that she is the only co-trustee looking to conserve — not waste — trust assets,” Porpora said.

Mozenter did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.