President Donald Trump has ordered the declassification of thousands of government secret documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, an event that has been the focus of various conspiracy theories for decades. The executive order signed by Trump also aims to declassify remaining federal records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. This order is one of a series of swift executive actions taken by Trump in the first week of his second term.
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02-13, 2025Speaking to reporters, Trump stated, "Everything will be revealed." Trump had pledged during his re-election campaign to release the final batch of still-classified documents about President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, an event that has captivated public attention for decades. Trump had made similar promises during his first term but ultimately yielded to requests from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to withhold some documents.
Trump has nominated Kennedy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as his new administration's Secretary of Health. Kennedy Jr. has stated that he does not believe a lone gunman was responsible for his uncle President Kennedy’s assassination 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 is not clear when these records will actually be released.
Trump handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide, instructing it to be given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Of the millions of government records related to President Kennedy's assassination, only a few thousand remain not fully declassified. While many who have studied the released documents believe the public should not expect any earth-shattering revelations, there is still significant interest in the details related to the assassination and the events surrounding it.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of "The Kennedy Half-Century," stated, "There is always the possibility that there is some overlooked detail, and that could be the tip of a larger iceberg that has revelatory significance." He also said, "That's what researchers are looking for. Now, you may not find it, but it could be there." Kennedy was fatally shot in downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963, as his motorcade passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository building, where 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself in a sixth-floor sniper's nest. Two days after Kennedy's murder, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.
In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all documents related to the assassination be housed in a separate collection at the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection of over 5 million records required openness by 2017, unless the president designated any exemptions. The order stated that while there is no congressional act directing the release of information about the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy or King, making those government records public “is also in the public interest.”
During his first term, Trump had boasted that he would allow the release of all remaining records about the presidential assassination, but ultimately withheld some due to what he said were potential dangers to national security. While documents have continued to be released under President Joe Biden, some still remain unreleased. Sabato stated that most researchers agree that “roughly” 3,000 records have not been released in full or in part, many of which are from the CIA.
Documents released over the past few years have provided details about how intelligence agencies operated at the time, including CIA cables and memos discussing Oswald's visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City during the weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning to Texas. King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated within two months of each other in 1968.
King was shot outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. The civil rights leader was in town supporting striking sanitation workers and planned to lead marches and other nonviolent protests there. He died in a hospital less than an hour later. James Earl Ray confessed to assassinating King. However, he later recanted his plea and maintained his innocence until his death. FBI documents released over the years have shown how the bureau wiretapped King's phone lines, installed bugs in his hotel rooms, and used informants to obtain damaging information about him. The agency's actions were the subject of the recent documentary "MLK/FBI."
Robert F. Kennedy, then a New York senator, was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, just after delivering a victory speech following his win in the California Democratic presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is currently serving a prison sentence. Researchers believe that some documents still exist in the Kennedy files that presidents have been unable to release. Approximately 500 documents, including tax returns, are not subject to the 2017 disclosure requirements. Researchers have also noted that some documents have been destroyed over the decades.
