WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to declassify the remaining government files related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
He made the declaration at the White House on Thursday while signing an executive order.
As an aide introduced the order, stating it directed “the declassification of files relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.,” Trump remarked, “That’s a big one, huh? A lot of people are waiting for this for a long — for years, for decades.”
Following the signing, Trump instructed his aide to present the pen he used to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy.
The elder Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general, senator from New York, and 1968 Democratic presidential candidate, was assassinated that same year.
Trump has nominated Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
A partial release of the JFK assassination records in 2022 revealed that the National Archives and Records Administration had already made public 97% of the approximately five million pages in its collection.
Trump originally vowed in 2017 during his first administration to release the remaining documents.
At the time, this included around 3,000 never-before-seen records and 30,000 previously released with redactions. However, not all files were disclosed during his term.
