Trump vows to release classified JFK, RFK, and MLK assassination files
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Trump has vowed he would also make public records that are of "great public interest."
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A photo shows former US President John F. Kennedy (AP)
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he will reveal confidential records related to the assassinations of US President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump, who was sworn in on Monday, vowed throughout the campaign to disclose secret intelligence and law enforcement files on the 1963 death of JFK, as America's 35th president is generally known.
He had made a similar pledge during his 2017–2021 tenure, and he did release certain records related to JFK's 1963 assassination. However, he eventually caved to pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and withheld a large number of records, alleging national security concerns.
In a downtown Washington rally, Trump claimed that in coming days, "we are going to make public remaining records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other topics of great public interest."
Trump did not identify which records will be disclosed, nor did he pledge a sweeping declassification. King and Robert Kennedy were both killed in 1968.
The assassination of JFK remains a topic of ongoing intrigue in the US with polls indicating many still believe it was part of a larger conspiracy.
On November 22, 1963, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, sparking a frenzy of public inquiry. Several investigations concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots, and he was apprehended shortly after the murder. Two days later, he was shot while being escorted to a car that was supposed to take him to the county jail by Jack Ruby, the owner of a Dallas club. In the decades since the events, a plethora of conspiracy theories have emerged in an attempt to explain the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's health and human services secretary-designate, the son of Robert Kennedy and JFK's nephew, has stated that he believes the CIA was responsible for his uncle's assassination in 1963.
"There is overwhelming evidence that the CIA was involved in [John F Kennedy's] murder. I think it’s beyond a reasonable doubt at this point," the candidate said on WABC 770 AM's Cats Roundtable show with John Catsimatidis while referring to James Douglas' book "JFK and the Unspeakable."
Kennedy Jr. said the CIA was not only involved in the late 35th US President's assassination but also in "the cover-up" of the crime.
Kennedy Jr. has also stated that he believes his father was assassinated by many gunmen, which contradicts official explanations.
The CIA said on its website that conspiracies linking the agency to JFK's assassination were a "lie."
