Washington— As he promised during his presidential campaign in 2024, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to release files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
“That’s a big one. Lot of people are waiting for this a long, for years, for decades,” Trump said signing the executive order in the Oval Office, as quoted by CNN.
“Give that to RFK Jr.,” he said, indicating that the pen he used to sign the order should be given to his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, who is the son of the former attorney general and nephew of the late president.
“All will be revealed,” Trump added.
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the USA, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through the city of Dallas, Texas, on 22 November 1963.
Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. He was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.
Robert Francis Kennedy also known as RFK, brother of JFK, was an American politician and former Attorney General. He was assassinated on 6 June 1968 in Los Angeles, California while campaigning for presidential elections as a candidate. He advocated the American civil rights movement, fought organized crime and got involved in US foreign policy in Cuba and wrote a book about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Federal Government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events. Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay,” the Executive Order reads.
“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. And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest,” the Order said.
The records will not be released immediately. “Within 15 days of the date of this order, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General shall, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President, present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” the order reads. The timeline is within 45 days for RFK and MLK files.
Despite previous pledges from presidents, including Trump, to release those records, the CIA, Pentagon and State Department still have documents they’ve refused to release. The justification for those documents remaining classified largely stems from efforts to protect the identities of confidential sources who are still alive, or might be alive, and protecting methods.
When Trump was president, he agreed at the time not to release the full tranche of records related to Kennedy’s assassination at the request of national security agencies. But Trump on the 2024 campaign trail said he would release the remaining documents.