President Trump on Thursday ordered the declassification and release of long-secret files related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. The release of the files could put an end to six decades of numerous conspiracy theories.
Trump’s order requires the Director of National Intelligence to submit a plan within 15 days for the “full and complete release” of records connected to JFK’s assassination. Additionally, a plan for releasing documents related to the other two assassinations must also be prepared within 45 days. Trump executive order also mentions that the “release of these records is long overdue.”
Finally, the Truth Will be Revealed
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“This is a big one. A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades,” Trump, 78, said as he signed the order at the White House.
“And everything will be revealed,” he added while signing an executive order in the Oval Office that requires the disclosure of the files. His decision follows decades of speculation and conspiracy theories surrounding each of the assassinations.
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The order mandates the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to quickly organize and facilitate the release of the documents.
President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963, with the primary suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, being killed two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. This led to ongoing speculation about whether Oswald was part of a larger conspiracy or was merely a scapegoat.
Oswald, a former Marine Corps member, had defected to the Soviet Union four years before the assassination, only to return to the United States later. In late September 1963, he visited the Cuban consulate in Mexico City and contacted the Soviet embassy, reportedly to arrange travel visas.
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Less than two weeks before the assassination, Oswald wrote to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, expressing frustration: “[H]ad I been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in Havana, as planned, the embassy there would have had time to complete our business.”
A CIA document released following a separate order by Trump in 2017 suggested that while Oswald appeared to be planning a peaceful relocation to the Soviet Union, there was also the possibility that he was preparing for a quick escape after carrying out the president’s assassination.
Ruby’s known ties to organized crime have further fueled JFK conspiracy theories.
No End to Conspiracy Theories
In June 1968, then-New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian Christian, shortly after winning California’s Democratic primary. Sirhan’s lawyer later suggested that his client was set up.
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Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services and ordered an aide to give RFK Jr. the pen used to sign Thursday’s order.
The younger Kennedy has previously claimed that the CIA was responsible for the deaths of both his father and uncle, and, in contrast to his siblings, has advocated for Sirhan’s parole.
In April 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed by James Earl Ray, following a period when the FBI sought to discredit King’s anti-racism efforts — including sending a notorious letter in 1964 that appeared to encourage King to take his own life.
A report from the FBI, dated March 12, 1968, just 23 days before King’s assassination, noted that many of King’s closest allies had Communist ties. The analysis revealed that two of King’s former aides were members of the Communist Party, and eight others had affiliations with Communist groups.
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The document also mentioned that in the early 1960s, the Communist Party sought to form a black labor coalition to advance its objectives in the U.S. It suggested that King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference were ideally suited for this purpose.
The report further mentioned that a black minister who attended a workshop for training ministers hosted by King in February 1968 in Miami “expressed his disgust with the behind-the-scene [sic] drinking, fornication and homosexuality that went on at the conference.”
“Throughout the ensuing years and until this date,” the FBI analysis said, “King has continued to carry on his sexual aberrations secretly while holding himself out to public view as a moral leader of religious conviction.”
