On Thursday, United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order ordering the declassification of government records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy (in 1963), his brother Robert F. Kennedy (in 1968) and the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (also in 1968). During the announcement in the Oval Office, Donald Trump said: “A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, decades. All will be revealed. »
Donald Trump asked his advisor to give the pen used to sign this executive order to Robert Kennedy Jr., son of Robert F. Kennedy, whom he had appointed Minister of Health. Robert Kennedy Jr. has previously spoken of “overwhelming evidence of CIA involvement” in his uncle’s assassination, as well as “very compelling” evidence implicating the agency in his father’s murder.
A quest for transparency
According to the decree, this declassification aims to respond to a quest for transparency overdue for decades: “Their families and the American people deserve transparency and the truth. It is in the national interest to finally make public all records related to these assassinations without delay. »
This announcement is also part of a campaign promise repeated by Donald Trump after his election, aiming to make public the files still classified as “top secret” on the JFK assassination. In 1964, a commission of inquiry concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine who lived in the Soviet Union, had acted alone, but the case continued to give rise to numerous theories.
-A first declassification in 2022
As of December 2022, the National Archives has already declassified more than 13,000 documents, but the Biden administration has blocked the release of thousands more, citing national security concerns. According to the National Archives, 99% of the five million pages on these files are currently accessible.
Robert F. Kennedy, brother of JFK and former Justice Minister, was assassinated on June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles after a speech during the Democratic primaries. He was shot dead by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian who emigrated to the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis by James Earl Ray, a white segregationist.
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