In a significant move towards transparency, the Trump administration recently made public over 10,000 pages of files related to the 1968 assassination of former Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Following an executive order aimed at declassifying documents on the killings of prominent Americans, the files, once stored at the National Archives, have now been manually scanned and uploaded on https://archives.gov/rfk.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the late Senator and current Health Secretary under Trump, along with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, released a joint statement applauding the release of the files. They highlighted that the documents have been published with minimal redactions to protect privacy, such as Social Security and Tax Identification Numbers.
Kennedy Jr. commended President Trump for his commitment to transparency, stating that unveiling the RFK papers is a crucial step in rebuilding trust in the American government. Gabbard confirmed that an additional 50,000 pages are still being prepared for public release, indicating the continuous efforts to uncover more information.
This initiative aligns with Trump's promise to disclose files related to the deaths of Robert F. Kennedy, his brother John F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who all fell victim to assassinations in the turbulent 1960s. In the past, the administration also declassified around 80,000 pages of documents concerning President Kennedy's assassination.
Despite facing requests from the intelligence community to keep certain materials classified, Trump signed an order in January to declassify documents on the Kennedy brothers and King upon his return to office. The President has persistently endorsed the release of these documents, implying that governmental agencies may have impeded their publication.
Robert F. Kennedy Sr., a revered senator and presidential nominee, was tragically shot and killed in 1968, while his son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has advocated for the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the convicted assassin, on parole—an opinion that diverges from his siblings' viewpoints. In a notable 2021 op-ed, Kennedy Jr. urged California Governor Gavin Newsom to reconsider Sirhan's sentence, questioning his father's true assailant, but Sirhan was ultimately denied parole by Newsom.