Trump orders release of JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King assassination records

President Trump orders release of classified documents on JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, fueling conspiracy theories.

President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which has fueled conspiracy theories for decades.

The executive order Mr. Trump signed on Thursday (January 23, 2025) also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The order is among a flurry of executive actions Mr. Trump has quickly taken the first week of his second term.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Trump said, “everything will be revealed.”

Mr. Trump had promised during his reelection campaign to make public the last batches of still-classified documents surrounding President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, which has transfixed people for decades. Mr. Trump made a similar pledge during his first term, but ultimately bent to appeals from the CIA and FBI to withhold some documents.

Mr. Trump has nominated Kennedy’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be the Health Secretary in his new administration. Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination. The younger Kennedy has said he isn’t convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President Kennedy, in 1963.

The order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to release the remaining John F. Kennedy records, and within 45 days for the other two cases. It was not clear when the records would actually be released.

Mr. Trump handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide and directed it to be given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.