President Trump on Thursday ordered the nation’s security agencies to prepare plans to release all government records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Mr. Trump had similarly promised to release the remaining documents related to the Kennedy assassination during his first term, but he ultimately did so at the request of intelligence agencies, including the names of CIA assets, intelligence-gathering methods, and more. Agreed to some modifications to protect sensitive information. and partnerships.
Since returning to office, Mr. Trump has said he no longer believes such an amendment is valid and wants everything related to the president’s assassination to be released. He also ordered the agencies to develop plans to release documents related to the assassinations of Senator Kennedy and Dr. King, which were not covered by previous disclosure laws focused on President Kennedy.
“I have now determined that the continued suppression and withholding of information from the records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not in the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue,” Mr. Trump said in an executive order. “I have determined that the release of all records relating to the deaths of Senator Kennedy and Dr. King is also in the public interest,” he added.
Mr. Trump has long engaged in conspiracy theories about the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, even alleging that the father of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of his Republican primary rivals in 2016, was assassinated. , had an affair with assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Testimony at Mr. Trump’s hush money trial last year revealed that the National Enquirer, who was helping Mr. Trump at the time. It charged Using doctored images to smear Mr. Cruz.
Mr. Trump now has an adviser in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who similarly subscribes to conspiracy theories about the assassination of the president, his uncle, in Dallas. Mr Kennedy, who endorsed Mr Trump last year and is now nominated for health secretary, said there was “overwhelming evidence that the CIA was involved in his assassination” and “At this point it is beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Mr. Kennedy, who was 14 when his father was shot in a Los Angeles hotel in June 1968 and died the next day in a hospital, similarly criticized the official account of the assassination. The question has been raised. He has said he believes a second gunman was involved and that the convicted killer was Sirhan B. Sirhan. Not the one who killed his father.
The younger Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly raised the issue of the release of assassination documents related to his family with those close to Mr. Trump, according to one person who has heard him discuss the matter. It was not immediately clear why Mr. Trump included the assassination of Dr. King in April 1968 in the disclosure order.
A 1992 law mandated that documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy, except those that could cause “identifiable harm” to national security that outweighs the value of disclosure, be released within 25 years.
When the deadline arrived in 2017, Mr. Trump released some of the documents but gave intelligence agencies more time to complete the work out of respect. In 2023, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. released more documents and called it a “final certification” under the law.
According to the National Archives and Records Administration, about 320,000 documents have been reviewed since the law’s passage, with 99 percent being disclosed. But when Mr. Biden made his certification, 2,140 documents were withheld in whole or in part. Another 2,502 documents were withheld for reasons beyond the president’s control, such as court-ordered seals, grand jury confidentiality rules, tax confidentiality restrictions or restrictions imposed by people donating the documents. The final 42 papers were dropped for various reasons.
In his order on Thursday, Mr. Trump directed his attorney general and director of national intelligence to give him a plan within 15 days “for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.” He gave those same officials 45 days to develop a plan for the “full and complete release” of documents related to the assassinations of Senator Kennedy and Dr. King.
Jonathan Swann Cooperation reporting.
