Trump Signs Executive Order to Release Remaining Files of JFK, RFK, MLK Assassinations

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Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to declassify any remaining files from the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy (JFK), his brother Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK). “I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue,” Trump said in the executive order.



According to Namibia Press Agency, Trump emphasized that although no Act of Congress mandates the release of the RFK and MLK assassination files, he believes their disclosure is in the public interest. The executive order mandates the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to present a plan for the “full and complete” release of JFK-related documents within 15 days. Trump also set a 45-day deadline for the presentation of a plan to release all RFK and MLK files.



JFK, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a motorcade. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder, yet numerous conspiracy theories about the circumstances of Oswald’s dramatic death two days after the assassination remain prevalent even today. In 1992, Congress required all documents related to the assassinations to be made available to the public within 25 years, by October 26, 2017.



In his first term that started in January 2017, Trump accepted proposed redactions from executive departments and agencies but ordered the continued re-evaluation of those remaining redactions. Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump, issued subsequent certifications concerning these records in 2021, 2022, and 2023, which gave agencies additional time to review the documents and withhold information from public disclosure, according to the order.



Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, stated on June 30, 2023, that 99 percent of records associated with JFK’s assassination were available for public consumption through the National Archives and Records Administration. RFK, a prominent figure from the Kennedy family, was assassinated in 1968 during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. MLK is celebrated for his nonviolent campaign against racial segregation and inequality, as well as his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.