Washington
Judge weighs whether to unseal records of FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is weighing a request from the Trump administration to unseal records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. — files that the civil rights leader’s relatives want to keep under wraps in the national archives.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., said during a hearing on Wednesday that he wants to see an inventory of the records before deciding whether the government can review them for possible release to the public.
“This is delicate stuff,” Leon said. “We’re going to go slowly. Little steps.”
Justice Department attorneys have asked Leon to end a sealing order for the records nearly two years ahead of its expiration date. A department attorney said the administration is only interested in releasing files related to King’s assassination.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King led, is opposed to unsealing any of the records for privacy reasons. The organization’s lawyers said King’s relatives also want to keep the files under seal.
In 1977, a court order directed the FBI to collect records about its surveillance and monitoring of King and turn them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. The order required the records to remain under seal for 50 years — until Jan. 31, 2027.
In January, President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to review and publicly release documents about King’s assassination “because the American people have an interest in full transparency about this key historic event,” government lawyers wrote.
“To maximize this transparency objective, the records sealed in this case should be part of the Attorney General’s review,” they added.
SCLC attorneys said the FBI tried to discredit King and their organization by illegally wiretapping King’s home, SCLC offices and hotel rooms where King met with other SCLC officials. Unsealing records of those recordings is contrary to the interests of SCLC, the King family and the public, the lawyers argued.
“Since its inception, this case has been about government overreach,” said SCLC attorney Sumayya Saleh.
Justice Department attorney Johnny Walker said the administration has no intention of releasing any personal communications or privileged records contained in the files.
“Thankfully, I am not here to defend the allegations in the underlying complaint,” Walker told the judge.
Nobody involved in the litigation knows what’s in the archives and whether any of it relates to King’s assassination.
“It could be easy. There could be nothing, and then we just all go away,” Walker said.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” the judge said. “The court is going to move very carefully.”
King was shot and killed on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1976, the SCLC and Bernard Lee, who was King’s executive assistant at the organization, filed a lawsuit to challenge the legality of the FBI’s surveillance. The 1977 court order required the FBI to compile records of its telephone wiretapping operations, between 1963 and 1968, at King’s home and at the SCLC offices in Atlanta and New York.
Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s youngest daughter, said in a court filing that she hopes the files are permanently sealed or destroyed.
“It is unquestionable that my father was a private citizen, not an elected official, who enjoyed the right to privacy that should be afforded to all private citizens of this country,” she said. “To not only be unjustifiably surveilled, but to have the purported surveillance files made public would be a travesty of justice.”
Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order also called for declassifying records about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Texas
Police consider whether ‘King of the Hill’ actor’s sexual orientation played a role in his killing
HOUSTON (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether the sexual orientation of “King of the Hill” voice actor Jonathan Joss played a role in his shooting death in Texas, authorities said Thursday, walking back a previous statement about the potential motive.
Joss’ husband has claimed the person who killed the actor yelled “violent homophobic slurs” before opening fire outside his home in San Antonio on Sunday night. A day after the shooting, San Antonio police issued a statement saying they had found “no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation.”
But during a news conference on Thursday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the statement was “premature” and that whether Joss’ sexual orientation played a role in the shooting “is part of the investigation.”
The police chief said many in the LGBTQ+ community “are feeling anxious and concerned” after Joss’ shooting and that “a lot of it has to do with that premature statement.”
Texas does not have separate hate crimes charges. But if homophobia is found to have been a motive in the shooting, that could result in a harsher sentence at trial under the state’s hate crimes law.
“We gather the facts, and we give those facts to the district attorney’s office. And then that hate crime designation is determined at sentencing,” McManus said.
The actor’s home burned down in January. Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, has said that they were checking mail there Sunday when a man approached them, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
In a statement, de Gonzales said he and Joss had previously faced harassment, much of it “openly homophobic.”
Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, who is a neighbor of Joss, is charged with murder in the shooting. Ceja Alvarez has been released on a $200,000 bond.
McManus said police had been called to Joss’ home and his neighborhood about 70 times over the past two years related to “neighborhood type disturbances.”
“Sometimes (Joss) was the caller. Other times, the neighbors were calling on him,” McManus said.
The San Antonio Police Department’s mental health unit as well as a unit known as SAFFE that works with residents to help prevent crime “had extensive engagements with Mr. Joss, making repeated efforts to mediate conflicts and connect him with services that he may have needed,” McManus said.
The January fire at Joss’ home is still being reviewed by arson investigators, McManus said.
Judge weighs whether to unseal records of FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is weighing a request from the Trump administration to unseal records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. — files that the civil rights leader’s relatives want to keep under wraps in the national archives.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., said during a hearing on Wednesday that he wants to see an inventory of the records before deciding whether the government can review them for possible release to the public.
“This is delicate stuff,” Leon said. “We’re going to go slowly. Little steps.”
Justice Department attorneys have asked Leon to end a sealing order for the records nearly two years ahead of its expiration date. A department attorney said the administration is only interested in releasing files related to King’s assassination.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King led, is opposed to unsealing any of the records for privacy reasons. The organization’s lawyers said King’s relatives also want to keep the files under seal.
In 1977, a court order directed the FBI to collect records about its surveillance and monitoring of King and turn them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. The order required the records to remain under seal for 50 years — until Jan. 31, 2027.
In January, President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to review and publicly release documents about King’s assassination “because the American people have an interest in full transparency about this key historic event,” government lawyers wrote.
“To maximize this transparency objective, the records sealed in this case should be part of the Attorney General’s review,” they added.
SCLC attorneys said the FBI tried to discredit King and their organization by illegally wiretapping King’s home, SCLC offices and hotel rooms where King met with other SCLC officials. Unsealing records of those recordings is contrary to the interests of SCLC, the King family and the public, the lawyers argued.
“Since its inception, this case has been about government overreach,” said SCLC attorney Sumayya Saleh.
Justice Department attorney Johnny Walker said the administration has no intention of releasing any personal communications or privileged records contained in the files.
“Thankfully, I am not here to defend the allegations in the underlying complaint,” Walker told the judge.
Nobody involved in the litigation knows what’s in the archives and whether any of it relates to King’s assassination.
“It could be easy. There could be nothing, and then we just all go away,” Walker said.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” the judge said. “The court is going to move very carefully.”
King was shot and killed on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1976, the SCLC and Bernard Lee, who was King’s executive assistant at the organization, filed a lawsuit to challenge the legality of the FBI’s surveillance. The 1977 court order required the FBI to compile records of its telephone wiretapping operations, between 1963 and 1968, at King’s home and at the SCLC offices in Atlanta and New York.
Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s youngest daughter, said in a court filing that she hopes the files are permanently sealed or destroyed.
“It is unquestionable that my father was a private citizen, not an elected official, who enjoyed the right to privacy that should be afforded to all private citizens of this country,” she said. “To not only be unjustifiably surveilled, but to have the purported surveillance files made public would be a travesty of justice.”
Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order also called for declassifying records about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Texas
Police consider whether ‘King of the Hill’ actor’s sexual orientation played a role in his killing
HOUSTON (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether the sexual orientation of “King of the Hill” voice actor Jonathan Joss played a role in his shooting death in Texas, authorities said Thursday, walking back a previous statement about the potential motive.
Joss’ husband has claimed the person who killed the actor yelled “violent homophobic slurs” before opening fire outside his home in San Antonio on Sunday night. A day after the shooting, San Antonio police issued a statement saying they had found “no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation.”
But during a news conference on Thursday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the statement was “premature” and that whether Joss’ sexual orientation played a role in the shooting “is part of the investigation.”
The police chief said many in the LGBTQ+ community “are feeling anxious and concerned” after Joss’ shooting and that “a lot of it has to do with that premature statement.”
Texas does not have separate hate crimes charges. But if homophobia is found to have been a motive in the shooting, that could result in a harsher sentence at trial under the state’s hate crimes law.
“We gather the facts, and we give those facts to the district attorney’s office. And then that hate crime designation is determined at sentencing,” McManus said.
The actor’s home burned down in January. Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, has said that they were checking mail there Sunday when a man approached them, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
In a statement, de Gonzales said he and Joss had previously faced harassment, much of it “openly homophobic.”
Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, who is a neighbor of Joss, is charged with murder in the shooting. Ceja Alvarez has been released on a $200,000 bond.
McManus said police had been called to Joss’ home and his neighborhood about 70 times over the past two years related to “neighborhood type disturbances.”
“Sometimes (Joss) was the caller. Other times, the neighbors were calling on him,” McManus said.
The San Antonio Police Department’s mental health unit as well as a unit known as SAFFE that works with residents to help prevent crime “had extensive engagements with Mr. Joss, making repeated efforts to mediate conflicts and connect him with services that he may have needed,” McManus said.
The January fire at Joss’ home is still being reviewed by arson investigators, McManus said.
