--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, July 22nd.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. The Trump administration released a massive collection of documents related to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. yesterday, posting more than a quarter million pages to the National Archives website.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The document dump came as President Trump and White House officials have been trying to divert attention from demands to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein. The administration framed the release of the King files as an act of transparency.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I was part of a team of reporters who went through all the records and talked to historians to try to figure out the significance of it all. And the big takeaway is it doesn't seem like there's very much there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague Rick Rojas says many of the pages are almost impossible to read because they're so old or because of how they were digitized. There are news clippings, tips from the public, and some random details about King's killer, James Earl Ray, including how he took dance classes and pulled aliases from James Bond novels.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: What wasn't included is something that historians and others who've been following this history have been waiting years for, which are the FBI wiretaps and other findings from government surveillance into Dr. King. These tapes and transcripts, which are under seal until 2027, could reveal more about Dr. King's personal life, including extramarital affairs and other behavior that might be seen now as scandalous.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But it could also just show the intensity with which federal investigators probed into his life and tried to use whatever they could as leverage in their campaign to derail him and the broader civil rights movement.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: While running for office, Trump vowed to release files related to King's assassination, as well as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy. Their deaths have all long been the subject of conspiracy theories.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In March, the administration released the JFK files. They also contained almost no new information about his death.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, here's what I would say about the Epstein files. There is no daylight between the House Republicans and the House on maximum transparency.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: House Speaker Mike Johnson now says that lawmakers will not vote this summer on a resolution calling for the Justice Department to release the Epstein files.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's a retreat from his position just last week that the material must be made public. It's a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I mean, the White House and the White House... Those comments made on a podcast marked a rare break between Johnson and the president.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Now, though, Johnson's moving on, as President Trump has urged his followers to do. Trump seemed to appease his hard right base somewhat by calling for the release of selections of grand jury testimony related to Epstein.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But it's unclear if that will completely satisfy their calls for transparency.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Kentucky, a federal judge sentenced a former Louisville police officer to nearly three years in prison on Monday for his role in the death of Breonna Taylor.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Taylor was killed during a botched drug raid back in 2020 when police burst into her apartment in the middle of the night.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Her death fueled national outrage and protests over police violence against Black Americans.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The former officer, Brett Hankison, shot 10 rounds through Taylor's window during the raid, though she was killed by other officers at the scene.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He faced up to life in prison after being convicted of violating her civil rights, but the Trump administration urged the judge last week to sentence Hankison to just one day, signaling that the Justice Department is dropping its push to address racial disparities in policing.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I don't think it was a fair sentencing, but it was a start.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Outside the courthouse, Taylor's mother said she was grateful that the judge, a Trump appointee, rejected the administration's request.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We could have walked away with nothing according to what they recommended. I'm just grateful for my friends.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Hankison was the only officer to be charged for his actions the night of the raid, though a federal report later found that the Louisville Police Department had shown a pattern of discriminating against Black residents, as well as other abusive behavior.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Trump administration is scaling back the military presence in Los Angeles announcing yesterday that it's withdrawing 700 Marines who were sent there as part of a larger military response after protests broke out over the president's immigration crackdown.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Since June, the troops have mostly stood guard outside federal office buildings and accompanied immigration agents during raids.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Pentagon framed the operation, which cost an estimated $134 million as a success, saying the troops prevented civil unrest.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: L.A.'s mayor, however, compared the deployment of the Marines, along with thousands of National Guard soldiers, to a, quote, armed occupation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She and state officials have called for them all to be pulled back.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Members of the National Guard deployed to L.A. told The Times that morale has been low. Re-enlistment rates have plummeted, and several soldiers were reassigned after raising objections to the mission.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There's been a new turn in the case of Eitan Pates, the six-year-old boy whose disappearance four decades ago changed how generations of American children were raised.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I think that I was probably in the bathroom shaving when Eitan went out the door. On May 25, 1979, Eitan headed off to school, as his father described later to ABC News.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The bus stop was less than two blocks from their house in Manhattan.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: At some point in every parent's life, they send their children to school alone. Did we do it too early? Obviously we did.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: When Eitan disappeared, it triggered a frantic search. His picture went up on everything from billboards to milk cartons.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And the story became a cautionary tale for parents across the country. who started limiting where their kids could go alone.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: His body was never found.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: More than three decades later, police arrested Pedro Hernandez, who worked at a bodega near the Pates family home.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Though there was no scientific evidence linking Hernandez to the crime, after seven hours of police questioning, he confessed to killing Eitan.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: On Monday, however, a federal appeals court found that the original trial judge had minimized the fact that police didn't read Hernandez his Miranda rights before that initial confession and throughout his conviction.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Lawyers for Hernandez who been in prison for 13 years have argued that he had a history of severe mental illness and psychotic hallucinations and that the confession was false.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The appeals court said that now a new trial must be held within a reasonable period of time, or Hernandez must be released.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, Malcolm Jamal Warner, who millions of Americans watched grow up on TV as The Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at 54.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He drowned in Costa Rica after apparently being swept away by a strong current.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Back in the 1980s... How do you expect to get into college with grades like this? No problem. See, I'm not going to college. Damn right.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Warner nabbed the role of Theo on The Cosby Show after a nationwide search, and he worked on the sitcom from age 13 to 21, as it captured the everyday life of an upper-middle-class Black family.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The show was celebrated as an overdue corrective against negative stereotypes on TV, a legacy that Warner stood by, even after the show's star, Bill Cosby, faced allegations of sexual assault.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You'll always be Theo Huxtable, right? Sure, yeah. I mean, that show holds such an importance because it really changed the scope of how Black America and white America and the world, for that matter, saw Black people.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Warner went on to work on dozens of other TV shows and films, including doing voice work on The Magic School Bus and acting in the medical drama The Resident.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He also performed as a bass player and wrote poetry. He earned a Grammy Award and another nomination for his spoken word performances, telling Billboard magazine, quote, I recognized with poetry and music that I had a different voice.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There were things I wanted to express that I could not as an actor. Adding, it was another avenue of expression that my soul needs.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, the Trump administration originally tried to thwart China's work in developing AI. Why it's now reversed course and is helping the country compete.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in the New York Times audio app, where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
