US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order mandating the release of all remaining classified files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., long shrouded in conspiracy theories.
“This is a big one. A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades,” Trump announced at the White House, adding, “And everything will be revealed.”
The order requires the Director of National Intelligence to present a plan within 15 days for the “full and complete release” of JFK-related documents, and within 45 days for files on RFK and MLK.
The assassination of JFK in 1963 has captivated Americans for decades, with widespread skepticism about the official narrative. A 2023 Gallup poll revealed that 65% of Americans doubted the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of RFK and Trump’s nominee for health secretary, has previously suggested evidence of CIA involvement in both his uncle’s and father’s deaths.
After signing his order at the Oval Office, Trump handed the pen he used to an aide, saying, “Give that to RFK Jr.”
Criticising Trump’s order, Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of JFK, said his grandfather’s death had not been part of an “inevitable grand scheme.”
“Declassification is using JFK as a political prop, when he’s not here to punch back. There’s nothing heroic about it,” Schlossberg, who works as a political correspondent for Vogue magazine, said in a post on X.
In 1992, the US Congress passed a law mandating that outstanding files related to the JFK assassination be released within 25 years unless the president determined that the harm to national security outweighed the public interest in disclosure.
Trump ordered the release of more than 2,800 documents upon the arrival of the 2017 deadline but bowed to pressure from the CIA and FBI to withhold thousands of more files pending review.
The administration of former US President Joe Biden ordered the release of approximately 17,000 more documents, leaving fewer than 4,700 withheld in part or in full.
In total, more than 99 percent of some 320,000 documents reviewed since the passage of the 1992 law have been released, according to The National Archives.
King, whose “I Have a Dream” speech became a defining moment of Black Americans’ struggle for equality, was fatally shot outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
Robert F Kennedy was shot dead at a Los Angeles hotel on June 5, 1968, shortly after wrapping up a speech to mark his victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary.
