Washington: US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order seeking to declassify files on the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Asserting that the victims’ families and the American people deserve to know the truth about these assassinations, the executive order directs the Director of National Intelligence to present a plan within 15 days for the “complete release” of all John F. Kennedy assassination records.
It also directs the Director of National Intelligence to immediately review the records on the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations and present a plan for their complete release within 45 days.
The push to release assassination-related files dates back decades. In 1992, Congress mandated that all documents related to the assassinations be released within 25 years. In 2022, some JFK files were made public, with the National Archives stating that 97 per cent of the roughly 5 million pages in its collection were accessible to the public. The CIA also confirmed that 95 per cent of its records had been released, with no documents entirely redacted.
Trump had pledged during his first term in 2017 to release the remaining JFK files, which included around 3,000 previously unseen documents and 30,000 redacted files. However, not all files were made available at the time.
The Biden administration also released over 13,000 documents related to JFK’s assassination, yet calls for full disclosure persisted. In 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged President Joe Biden to release all files connected to his uncle’s assassination.
Trump’s new commission
In August, RFK Jr., who endorsed Trump after running as both a Democrat and an independent, joined him on stage as Trump announced plans to establish a “new independent presidential commission on assassination attempts.” This commission will oversee the release of remaining documents tied to JFK’s assassination and other similar events.
To recall, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963 during a visit to Dallas, Texas, with Lee Harvey Oswald identified as the gunman. Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general and Democratic presidential candidate, was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968 after winning the California Democratic primary. Dr Martin Luther King Jr., a leader of the civil rights movement, was assassinated the same year in Memphis, Tennessee, by James Earl Ray.
