On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order to declassify documents pertaining to the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. This action aligns with Trump’s commitment to disclose previously classified materials during his 2024 presidential campaign.
“Everything will be revealed,” Trump stated to reporters while executing the order in the Oval Office.
During his initial term, Trump had vowed to release all documents relevant to the assassination of John F. Kennedy;
however, an undisclosed number of materials continue to remain classified, over sixty years after Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
Following requests from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Trump chose to withhold the release of numerous records, citing potential risks to U.S. national security,
law enforcement, and foreign relations that he determined outweighed the public’s interest in immediate transparency.
Additionally, Trump’s pledge to release outstanding documents related to Martin Luther King Jr. and former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy raises questions about the processes and timelines he will establish for expediting these disclosures.
According to CNBC, The executive order mandates that the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General coordinate within a strict timeframe of 15 days with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, as well as with former President Trump’s legal counsel.
Their objective is to devise a comprehensive plan that they will present to the President for the total and unconditional release of all records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Moreover, this directive extends to the review of documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
These officials are also tasked with creating a similar plan aimed at ensuring that the records concerning these prominent figures are made fully and transparently available to the public.
The executive order underscores a significant concern, stating, “More than 50 years after the tragic assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Federal Government has yet to disclose all records associated with these pivotal events to the American public.”
It emphasizes the importance of transparency, asserting, “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 legislative backdrop to this order is rooted in the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which established a requirement for all records related to Kennedy’s assassination to be publicly disclosed in their entirety by October 26, 2017.
This disclosure would only be postponed if the President could certify that such a delay was necessary due to identifiable harm to military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations.
Furthermore, it stipulated that any identified harm must be significant enough to outweigh the collective public interest in accessing these historical documents.
