President-elect Donald Trump has signed an executive order to release classified documents relating to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and African-American activist Martin Luther King.
During a press conference in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump promised that “everything will be revealed”, adding that “a lot of people are waiting for this for long, for years, for decades“.
“I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue“, Trump wrote in his presidential order.
“And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest“, he continued.
President Trump Orders Historic Transparency: JFK, RFK, and MLK Files to be Declassified
“This is a big one. A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. Everything will be revealed.” –President Trump pic.twitter.com/iYfF7huHj9
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 23, 2025
Unclear if all censorship will lift
Under the new decree, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General must present a plan for the release of the JFK documents within 15 days. For other documents, a 45-day deadline applies. Although the documents are now being released, they are still expected to contain some redacted information, according to analysts.
The assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and King have been the subject of widespread speculation and theories for more than half a century, with many of the hypotheses put forward involving US intelligence or security services.
JFK was assassinated in 1963 during a motorcade in Dallas. In 1968, his brother Robert was assassinated and in the same year Martin Luther King was shot dead in Memphis.