By Praveena Somasundaram · The Washington Post (c) 2025
President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the declassification of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, former U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
“That’s a big one, huh?” he said while signing the order in the Oval Office.
For decades, the files have held the fascination of historians, journalists and politicians – including Trump, who had promised in his first term to release the records related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination. In 2017, he released 2,800 records, but delayed the release of the most-anticipated documents in the investigation, citing national security concerns.
In 2018, Trump authorized the disclosure of about 19,000 documents, and in 2022, President Joe Biden released another trove of them, though many remain redacted.
In the executive order regarding the three assassinations, Trump wrote: “Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth.”
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When could the declassified documents be released?
It’s unclear when exactly the documents will be released publicly, but Trump on Thursday directed the director of national intelligence, attorney general and other officials to present a plan for the “full and complete release of records” related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination within 15 days.
He directed officials to review the documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and King and present a plan for their release within 45 days.
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What needs to happen before the documents are released?
There are more than 3,600 documents related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination that have minor and significant redactions, said Jefferson Morley, editor of the JFK Facts newsletter and a former Washington Post reporter. But that number considers only the records held in the National Archives collection.
Officials must determine whether records outside that collection – including those held by the Kennedy family and agencies such as the CIA and FBI – fall under Trump’s executive order, Morley said. Then, they will need to locate and review them. He added that the documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and King also will take more time to locate because they are not as consolidated as much of the John F. Kennedy records are.
As the documents are reviewed, it’s possible that intelligence officials and agencies will again raise concerns about their full declassification, Morley said.
In 1992, Congress mandated that the records related to John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination be released within 25 years. Trump’s team was under pressure to meet that deadline in 2017 but delayed the release of some documents after heavy lobbying from agencies including the CIA and FBI. The threat to national security, the agencies argued, outweighed public interest.
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What is expected in the JFK, RFK and MLK documents?
The redaction and withholding of documents has long fueled conspiracy theories surrounding the assassinations.
Following John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson created a commission that concluded the gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, had acted alone. For decades, conspiracy theories have spiraled, some questioning whether Oswald colluded with another gunman or had received orders from agents of the Soviet Union or another foreign power.
Yet another prevalent theory is that American officials, including the CIA, were involved in some way.
Experts and historians are divided over what details they believe are contained in the unreleased documents – and whether they will back up or debunk any of the theories.
But their release, Morley said, is not about finding “a smoking gun.”
“What did happen? It’s very hard to say, and I don’t have a theory,” he said. “But that’s why we need to see the rest of the records.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services – has publicly amplified the CIA involvement theory. He said in a Fox News interview that his father, Robert F. Kennedy’s, “first instinct” was “that the agency killed his brother.”
Upon signing the executive order Thursday, Trump asked an aide to make sure the pen he used would be given to the younger Kennedy.
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Matt Viser contributed to this report.