Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified government documents about the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, which has fueled conspiracy theories for decades.
The executive order signed by the president on Thursday also aims to declassify remaining federal records related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This order is among the most surprising of executive actions. The second term
More than 50 years after the executive assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the federal government has not released all of its records related to those events to the public. “Order Described
“His family and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these killings without further delay,” he added.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said: “Everything will be revealed.”
“It’s a big one,” he said Added When he signed the order.
Trump promised during his re-election campaign to make public the last batch of still-classified documents about the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, which have moved people for decades. He made a similar commitment during his first term, but ultimately heeded appeals from the CIA and FBI to withhold some documents.
Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kennedy’s nephew, to be the health secretary in his new administration. Kennedy, whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles during the 1968 presidential election, has said that he is not sure who was responsible for the 1963 assassination of his uncle, John F. Kennedy. A lone gunman was solely responsible.
The order directs the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining John F. Kennedy records and within 45 days in the other two cases. It was unclear when the record would actually be released.
Trump handed over the pen used to sign the order and directed that it be given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
talk to According to NBC News, Kennedy Jr. said he was “grateful to President Trump,” adding: “I think this is a great move, because he needs more transparency in our government, and he The American people are keeping their promise to tell the truth about everything.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg described Trump’s latest executive order as a “political stunt.”
“The truth is far more depressing than the fiction—a tragedy that was not needed. Not part of the inevitable grand scheme. When he’s not here to beat back, defiance JFK as a political prop. There is nothing brave about it Said on x.
Of the millions of official records related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, only a few thousand have yet to be completely declassified. And while many who have studied the release so far say the public shouldn’t anticipate any earth-shattering revelations, there is still intense interest in the details surrounding the murder and the events surrounding it. .
“There’s always the possibility that something will slip through,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of The Kennedy Half-Century. “That’s what researchers look for. Now, odds are you won’t find it.” But it’s possible he’s there.”
Kennedy was shot and killed in downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963 as he rode his motorcycle past the Texas School Book Depository Building, where 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald shot himself from a sniper on the sixth floor. What was standing in the perch? Two days after Kennedy was killed, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald during a prison transfer.
In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all documents related to the assassination be kept in a single repository at the National Archives and Records Administration. Repositories of more than 5 million records were required to be opened by 2017, barring any waivers designated by the president.
During his first term, Trump boasted that he would allow the release of all remaining records related to the president’s assassination, but some backed off because of the potential harm this would cause to national security. And while files continue to be released under Joe Biden, some remain unaccounted for.
Sabato, who trains student researchers to comb through documents, said most researchers agree that “about” 3,000 records have yet to be released, either in whole or in part. As such, and many of them originated with the CIA.
Documents released over the years detail the intelligence services’ procedures at the time, and include CIA cables and memos on Oswald’s visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies. A few weeks before the murders were involved during a trip to Mexico City. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.
There are still some documents in the collection, though, that researchers aren’t sure the president will be able to release. About 500,000 documents, including tax returns, were not subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement. And, the researchers note, the documents were also destroyed over the decades.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
