Trump vows to release trove of files on JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations
President-elect Trump vowed Sunday to release a stash of government files on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., during a victory rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
“As the first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government, we will also reverse the overt classification of government documents,” Trump said. “And in the coming days, we are going to make public the remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other topics of great public interest. It’s all going to be released.”
Trump boasted in 2018, during his first term, that he would open all remaining John F. Kennedy assassination records for “great transparency.”
BREAKING 🚨 Donald Trump announced he will DECLASSIFY the JFK, RFK and MLK Files. WOW
The Deep State is NOT happy
THIS IS A HUGE WIN 🔥 pic.twitter.com/iAAoNndV7E
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) January 19, 2025
JUST NOW: Trump Reaffirms His Commitment To Declassify Documents Pertaining To The Assassination of JFK, Bobby Kennedy, & MLKhttps://t.co/4h6dLDF12d pic.twitter.com/Lr3rMRA47c
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) January 19, 2025
However, at the time, he announced the public must wait another three years or more before seeing the material which had to remain classified for national security reasons, over five decades after Kennedy was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
The National Archives released its last batch of more than 19,000 records in April 2018. But an undisclosed amount of material remains under wraps because, as Trump said at the time, the potential harm to U.S. national security, law enforcement or foreign affairs is “of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure.”
He ordered the CIA and other agencies to take yet another look at each blacked-out section of their documents during the next three years to see what more can be released.
Files released in 2018 — mostly FBI and CIA records — detailed how authorities combed through tips in the wake of Kennedy’s death, including a report from a woman who claimed she saw a man who looked like Oswald at a party in Mexico City.
Another file shows ex-CIA officer David Atlee Phillips being grilled by lawmakers about whether he believed Oswald was the lone assassin. Phillips said he wished there was information showing the Soviets or former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had played a role “because there are so many people, especially on college campuses who are convinced the CIA did it.”
