US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the destruction of the last classified files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a case that still fuels conspiracy theories 60 years after his death.
Trump signed an executive order that would also release documents about the 1960s assassinations of JFK’s younger brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
“This is big, huh? A lot of people have been waiting for this for years,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the White House’s Oval Office.
“All will be revealed.”
After signing the order, Trump passed the pen he used to an aide, saying, “Give RFK Jr.,” JFK’s nephew and current presidential nominee, the Health Department. And to become Secretary of Human Services.
The order Trump signed requires the “full and complete release” of JFK’s files, without the repercussions he accepted in 2017 when he released most of the documents.
“It is in the national interest to finally release all records relating to these killings without further delay,” the order said.
Trump has previously promised to release the final files, most recently on the eve of his inauguration on Monday.
‘Overwhelming Evidence’
The U.S. National Archives has released tens of thousands of records related to the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President Kennedy in recent years, but has withheld thousands, citing national security concerns.
It said at the time of its mass release in December 2022 that 97 percent of Kennedy’s records—totaling five million pages—have now been made public.
The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president has determined that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine sharpshooter, acted alone.
But the official conclusion has done little to quell speculation that another sinister plot was behind Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas, and the slow release of official files has added fuel to various conspiracy theories. .
Trump’s move is partly a nod to one of the conspiracies’ most prominent backers — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself.
RFK Jr. said there was “overwhelming evidence” implicating the CIA in the 2023 assassination of his uncle, JFK, and “very convincing” evidence that the agency was also involved in the 1968 assassination of his own father, Robert F. Kennedy. was behind the murder.
The former attorney general was killed while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president. A Palestinian-born Jordanian, Sarhan Sarhan, was convicted of his murder.
Anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. was awarded a health nod in Trump’s cabinet after abandoning his independent presidential bid and backing a Republican, but he faced a rocky nomination process.
Conspiracy theories
Thousands of Kennedy assassination documents from the National Archives were released during Trump’s first term in office, but he also returned some on national security grounds.
Then-President Joe Biden said at the time of the December 2022 release of the documents that a “limited” number of files would continue to be held at the request of unnamed “agencies.” Previous requests to withhold documents have come from the CIA and FBI.
Kennedy Scholars have stated that the documents still available through the archives contain little or no revelation of the 35th. The rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the US president are likely to be put to rest.
Oswald, who at one point was obsessed with the Soviet Union, was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby two days after Kennedy was killed, as he was being transferred from the city jail.
Hundreds of books and movies have fueled the conspiracy industry, including the 1991 Oliver Stone film “JFK,” which pointed the finger at Cold War rivals Russia or Cuba, the Mafia and even Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon Johnson. while doing
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in April 1968. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998, but King’s children have in the past expressed doubts that Ray was the killer.
