US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to declassify documents related to the 1960s assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
“A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades,” Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office. “Everything will be revealed.”
Afterward, the president handed the pen he used to an aide, joking, “Give that to RFK Jr.,” referring to his nominee for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The National Archives has gradually released tens of thousands of records regarding JFK’s assassination since 2017, but thousands of files were withheld, citing national security concerns. In December 2022, the Archives announced that 97% of the Kennedy-related records—amounting to approximately five million pages—had been made public, but some files remained classified.
The Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, concluded that the killing was carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine, acting alone. However, this conclusion has done little to quell ongoing speculation and conspiracy theories surrounding the event. The slow release of government files has only fueled these theories, with many believing a more complex plot was behind Kennedy’s murder in Dallas, Texas.
At the time of the 2022 document release, President Joe Biden noted that a “limited” number of files would continue to be withheld at the request of unspecified “agencies,” with previous requests coming from the CIA and FBI.
During his first term, Trump also authorized the release of thousands of Kennedy-related documents, though some were held back for national security reasons.
Conspiracy theories persist
Kennedy scholars have suggested that the remaining files are unlikely to provide any groundbreaking revelations or resolve the persistent conspiracy theories about JFK’s assassination. Oswald was killed two days after the shooting by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, while being transferred from jail.
The mystery surrounding the assassination has inspired countless books, films, and documentaries—most notably Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK—which have fueled theories implicating Cold War rivals, the Mafia, and even Vice President Lyndon Johnson.
Robert F. Kennedy, JFK’s younger brother and a former attorney general, was assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born Jordanian, was convicted of his murder and is serving a life sentence.
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998, though King’s children have questioned whether Ray was truly responsible.
AFP
