Trump issues executive order to declassify thousands of files on JFK assassination

Days after assuming the White House, US President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy. The death of the American leader has fueled a barrage of conspiracy theories for decades.

The president signed the executive order to release the documents on Thursday. Apart from this Trump also called for the declassification of documents related to the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy and the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. “More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, Senator Robert F Kennedy, and the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, the federal government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events,” the executive order stated.

“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,” it furthered. While speaking to reporters about the matter, Trump assured them that “everything will be revealed,” The Guardian reported. “That’s a big one,” he remarked as he signed the executive order.

Longtime coming

It is pertinent to note that Trump has pushed for the release of the JFK files during his first stint in the Oval Office. At that time, both the CIA and FBI made numerous appeals to the president urging him to withhold some documents. During his second bid for the White House, Trump pledged to make public the last batches of still-classified documents surrounding Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.

This also comes after Trump nominated JFK’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr to be the health secretary in his new Trump administration. Kennedy’s father was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 while running for president. In the past, the Democratic-turned-independent politician claimed that he was not convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle.

The executive order will now direct the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining John F Kennedy records. They have another 45 days to declassify documents regarding the assassinations of MLK Jr. and RFK.

While speaking to NBC News, Kennedy Jr said that he was “grateful to President Trump” for releasing the documents. “I think it’s a great move, because they need to have more transparency in our government, and he’s keeping his promise to have the government tell the truth to the American people about everything," he said.

Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of JFK, on the other hand, condemned the latest executive order calling it a “political prop”. “The truth is a lot sadder than the myth – a tragedy that didn’t need to happen. Not part of an inevitable grand scheme. Declassification is using JFK as a political prop when he’s not here to punch back. There’s nothing heroic about it,” Schlossberg said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

3,000 out of 5 million documents are yet to be released

Kennedy was shot dead in downtown Dallas on 22 November 1963 as his motorcade passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository building. The 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald was the main culprit behind the attack However, he was shot and killed by a nightclub owner Jack Ruby during a jail transfer.

In the 1990s, the federal government ordered that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection comprises more than 5 million records which were asked to be opened by the Trump administration by 2017.

During his first term, Trump ended up holding some of the documents back, claiming that it would potentially harm national security. Some of the files continued to be released under former President Joe Biden’s administration while thousands remain unseen.

According to The Associated Press, the documents released over the last several years offer details on the way intelligence services operated at the time. This included CIA memos which discussed how  Oswaled travelled to the then-USSR and Cuban embassies during his trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination.

With inputs from agencies.