Trump orders release of last JFK, RFK, King assassination files
January 24, 2025 |
AFP
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump ordered the declassification Thursday of the last secret files on the assassination of president John F. Kennedy, a case that still fuels conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death.
Trump signed an executive order that will also release documents on the 1960s assassinations of JFK's younger brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
"That's big one, huh? A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades," Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.
"Everything will be revealed."
After signing the order, Trump passed the pen he used to an aide, saying "Give that to RFK Jr.," JFK's nephew and the current president's nominee to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The order Trump signed requires the "full and complete release" of the JFK files, without redactions that he accepted back in 2017 when releasing most of the documents.
"It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay," the order said.
Trump had previously promised to release the last of the files, most recently at his inauguration on Monday.
Overwhelming evidence
The US National Archives has released tens of thousands of records in recent years related to the November 22, 1963 assassination of president Kennedy but held thousands back, citing national security concerns.
It said at the time of the latest large-scale release, in December 2022, that 97 percent of the Kennedy records - which total five million pages - had now been made public.
The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president determined that it was carried out by a former Marine sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.
But that formal conclusion has done little to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind Kennedy's murder in Dallas, Texas, and the slow release of the government files has added fuel to various conspiracy theories.
Trump's move is partly a gesture to one of the most prominent backers of those conspiracies - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself.
RFK Jr. said in 2023 there was "overwhelming evidence the CIA was involved" in his uncle JFK's murder and "very convincing" evidence the agency was also behind the 1968 assassination of his own father, Robert F. Kennedy.
The former attorney general was killed while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born Jordanian, was convicted of his murder.
Anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. was rewarded with the health nod in Trump's cabinet for dropping his independent presidential bid and backing the Republican, but he faces a rocky nomination process.
Conspiracy theories
Thousands of Kennedy assassination-related documents from the National Archives were released during Trump's first term in office, but he also held some back on national security grounds.
Then-president Joe Biden said at the time of the December 2022 documents release that a "limited" number of files would continue to be held back at the request of unspecified "agencies."
Previous requests to withhold documents have come from the CIA and FBI.
Kennedy scholars have said the documents still held by the archives are unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the 35th US president.
Oswald, who had at one point defected to the Soviet Union, was shot to death two days after killing Kennedy by a nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, as he was being transferred from the city jail.
Hundreds of books and movies such as the 1991 Oliver Stone film "JFK" have fueled the conspiracy industry, pointing the finger at Cold War rivals Russia or Cuba, the Mafia and even Kennedy's vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998 but King's children have expressed doubts in the past that Ray was the assassin
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump ordered the declassification Thursday of the last secret files on the assassination of president John F. Kennedy, a case that still fuels conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death.
Trump signed an executive order that will also release documents on the 1960s assassinations of JFK's younger brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
"That's big one, huh? A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades," Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.
"Everything will be revealed."
After signing the order, Trump passed the pen he used to an aide, saying "Give that to RFK Jr.," JFK's nephew and the current president's nominee to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The order Trump signed requires the "full and complete release" of the JFK files, without redactions that he accepted back in 2017 when releasing most of the documents.
"It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay," the order said.
Trump had previously promised to release the last of the files, most recently at his inauguration on Monday.
Overwhelming evidence
The US National Archives has released tens of thousands of records in recent years related to the November 22, 1963 assassination of president Kennedy but held thousands back, citing national security concerns.
It said at the time of the latest large-scale release, in December 2022, that 97 percent of the Kennedy records - which total five million pages - had now been made public.
The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president determined that it was carried out by a former Marine sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.
But that formal conclusion has done little to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind Kennedy's murder in Dallas, Texas, and the slow release of the government files has added fuel to various conspiracy theories.
Trump's move is partly a gesture to one of the most prominent backers of those conspiracies - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself.
RFK Jr. said in 2023 there was "overwhelming evidence the CIA was involved" in his uncle JFK's murder and "very convincing" evidence the agency was also behind the 1968 assassination of his own father, Robert F. Kennedy.
The former attorney general was killed while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born Jordanian, was convicted of his murder.
Anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. was rewarded with the health nod in Trump's cabinet for dropping his independent presidential bid and backing the Republican, but he faces a rocky nomination process.
Conspiracy theories
Thousands of Kennedy assassination-related documents from the National Archives were released during Trump's first term in office, but he also held some back on national security grounds.
Then-president Joe Biden said at the time of the December 2022 documents release that a "limited" number of files would continue to be held back at the request of unspecified "agencies."
Previous requests to withhold documents have come from the CIA and FBI.
Kennedy scholars have said the documents still held by the archives are unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the 35th US president.
Oswald, who had at one point defected to the Soviet Union, was shot to death two days after killing Kennedy by a nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, as he was being transferred from the city jail.
Hundreds of books and movies such as the 1991 Oliver Stone film "JFK" have fueled the conspiracy industry, pointing the finger at Cold War rivals Russia or Cuba, the Mafia and even Kennedy's vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998 but King's children have expressed doubts in the past that Ray was the assassin
Trump CIA Director pick John Ratcliffe confirmed by US Senate
Last updated: January 24, 2025 |
Bloomberg Wire
The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed John Ratcliffe as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, installing another core member of President Donald Trump’s national security team.
Ratcliffe, 59, a fierce Trump loyalist who was national intelligence director in the president’s first administration, stressed in confirmation hearings the need to counter threats from US adversaries.
He was confirmed Thursday in a 74-25 vote, the second Trump nominee to be approved by the Senate after Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s confirmation on Monday.
Ratcliffe won support from leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, including top committee Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia after he assured Warner the agency under his leadership would produce objective analysis and protect CIA employees from political interference. He promised to “speak truth to power” and protect Americans’ civil liberties.
That’s a marked departure from 2020, when the former Republican congressman and prosecutor from Texas faced unified Democratic opposition when he was confirmed as Trump’s national intelligence director.
Ratcliffe, who earlier withdrew himself from consideration for that post amid accusations that he exaggerated his qualifications, eventually won Republican support for the nomination following his staunch defense of Trump during the former president’s first impeachment. At the time, Democrats expressed concern Ratcliffe would take political orders from Trump or misrepresent intelligence.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised Ratcliffe’s experience and said he would provide “objective intelligence analysis without bias.”
Other Trump second-term nominees, including Defense pick Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, the former congresswoman Trump picked for Ratcliffe’s prior job as director of national intelligence, face stronger opposition.
Hegseth’s combative confirmation hearing failed to quell Democrats’ concerns about allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement at two nonprofits Hegseth ran. Democrats also have cast doubt on his ability to lead the $850 billion department’s complex budget and bureaucracy.
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