President Donald Trump has signed an executive order mandating the declassification and release of all remaining government files related to the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Al Jazeera reports.
The move comes as these assassinations continue to fuel decades of conspiracy theories and public skepticism about official explanations.
“This is a big one,” Trump declared as he signed the order at the White House. “A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades.”
The order directs the Director of National Intelligence to develop a plan within 15 days for the “full and complete release” of all files related to JFK’s assassination. A second plan, to be completed within 45 days, is to address the release of documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
The circumstances surrounding JFK’s assassination in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, have long captivated the public. A 2023 Gallup poll revealed that 65% of Americans do not believe the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald, a US Marine veteran, acted alone in the killing. The same poll showed 20% of Americans believe Oswald conspired with the US government, while 16% believe he worked with the CIA.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for Health Secretary and the son of Robert F. Kennedy, has previously claimed “overwhelming” evidence of CIA involvement in his uncle’s killing and “very convincing” circumstantial evidence of the agency’s involvement in his father’s death. After signing the order, Trump presented the pen he used to RFK Jr.
Criticism of the order came from Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, who stated his grandfather’s death was not the result of a “grand scheme.”
A 1992 law passed by Congress mandated the release of all JFK assassination-related files within 25 years, unless the President deemed a potential harm to national security outweighed the public interest. While Trump did order the release of more than 2,800 documents upon the 2017 deadline, he withheld thousands more at the urging of the CIA and FBI.
The Biden administration later released an additional 17,000 documents, leaving fewer than 4,700 withheld either partially or entirely. The National Archives has stated that more than 99% of over 320,000 reviewed documents since the 1992 law have already been released.
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot at a Los Angeles hotel on June 5, 1968, shortly after celebrating his victory in the California Democratic presidential primary.
