President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of secret government documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which have fueled conspiracy theories for decades.
The executive order signed by Trump on January 23 also aims to declassify remaining federal records related to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This matter comes as part of a series of executive measures taken by Trump, which quickly took place in the first week of his second term.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said: “Everything will be revealed.”
Mr. Trump had promised during his re-election campaign to make public the final batches of still-classified documents surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, which has stunned people for decades. Trump made a similar pledge during his first term, but eventually gave in to pleas from the CIA and FBI to withhold some documents.
Mr. Trump nominated John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be health secretary in his new administration. Mr. Kennedy’s father, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. The younger Kennedy said he was not convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President Kennedy, in 1963.
The order directs the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to develop a plan within 15 days to release the remaining John F. Kennedy records, and within 45 days for the other two cases. It was unclear when the records would actually be released.
Mr. Trump handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide and ordered it delivered to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Only a few thousand of the millions of government records related to the assassination of President Kennedy have not yet been fully declassified. While many who have studied what has been published so far say the public should not expect any shocking revelations, there remains a keen interest in the details surrounding the assassination and the events surrounding it.
“There’s always the possibility that something will slip through and be the small tip of a much larger iceberg that could be unveiled,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and author of “The Kennedy Half.” Century.” “That’s what researchers are looking for. Now, you probably won’t find that, but it could be out there.
John F. Kennedy was shot to death in downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963, as his motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository building, where 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald positioned himself from a sniper position on the building. Sixth floor. Two days after John F. Kennedy was killed, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot Mr. Oswald as he was being taken to prison.
In the early 1990s, the federal government ordered that all documents related to the assassination be placed in a single collection at the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection of more than 5 million records had to be opened by 2017, barring any exceptions specified by the president.
The order notes that although there is no law in Congress directing the release of information about the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy or King, releasing those government records “is also in the public interest.”
During his first term, Trump bragged that he would allow the release of all remaining records related to the president’s assassination, but he ended up withholding some of them due to what he called potential harm to national security. While the files have continued to be released under President Joe Biden, some remain unseen.
Most researchers agree that nearly 3,000 records have not yet been made public, either in whole or in part, many of which belong to the CIA, said Mr. Sabato, who trains student researchers to comb through documents.
Documents uncovered over the past several years detail the way the intelligence services operated at the time, and include CIA cables and memos discussing Oswald’s visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City a few weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.
King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated within two months of each other in 1968.
King was outside a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, when shots rang out. The civil rights leader, who was in the city to support striking sanitation workers, was scheduled to lead marches and other peaceful protests there. He died in hospital less than an hour later.
James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to King’s assassination. But he later abandoned this plea and maintained his innocence until his death.
FBI documents released over the years show how the bureau tapped King’s phone lines, bugged his hotel rooms, and used informants to obtain information against him. The agency’s behavior was the subject of the recent documentary “MLK/FBI.”
Kennedy, then a New York senator, was shot to death on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, moments after giving his victory speech in the Democratic presidential primary in California. His killer, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence.
There are still some documents in the JFK collection, although researchers don’t believe the president will be able to release them. About 500 documents, including tax returns, were not subject to the 2017 disclosure requirements. Researchers note that documents have also been destroyed over the decades.
This story was reported by the Associated Press. AP writer Terry Tang contributed to this report.
