Trump signs order to declassify JFK, RFK and MLK assassination files

US President Donald Trump signs an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of former president John F. Kennedy, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. In December 2022, 97 percent of the Kennedy records were made public. Scholars say the unreleased documents are unlikely to contain bombshell revelations.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday declassifying files on the 1960s assassinations of president John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

"A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades," Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House. "Everything will be revealed."

After signing the order, Trump passed the pen he used to an aide, saying "Give that to RFK Jr," the president's nominee to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

ADVERTISEMENT

The National Archives has released tens of thousands of records in recent years related to the November 22, 1963 assassination of president Kennedy but held thousands back, citing national security concerns.

It said at the time of the latest release, in December 2022, that 97 percent of the Kennedy records -- which total approximately five million pages -- had now been made public.

Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.


Read more on FRANCE 24 English

Read also:
US National Archives release trove of JFK assassination files
Last surviving witnesses of JFK assassination share memories on 60th anniversary