U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday the declassification of the remaining confidential files concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a case that continues to spark conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his murder.
Trump executed an executive order that will also unveil documents pertaining to the assassinations of JFK’s younger brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. from the 1960s.
“That’s a significant one, right? Many individuals have been anticipating this for years, for decades,” Trump remarked to journalists while signing the order in the Oval Office.
“Everything will be disclosed.”
Following the signing, Trump handed the pen he used to an aide, saying, “Deliver that to RFK Jr.,” referring to JFK’s nephew and the current president’s nominee for the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The order Trump signed mandates the “complete and total release” of the Kennedy files, without the redactions he agreed to back in 2017 when he eased access to most of the documents.
“It is in the nation’s interest to ultimately disclose all records associated with these assassinations promptly,” the order asserted.
Trump had previously pledged to release the final files, most recently during his inauguration on Monday.
– ‘Compelling evidence’ –
The U.S. National Archives has made tens of thousands of records related to the assassination of President Kennedy, which occurred on November 22, 1963, available in recent years, but has retained thousands, citing issues of national security.
At the time of the latest major release in December 2022, it indicated that 97 percent of the Kennedy documents—which amount to five million pages—had now been disclosed to the public.
