The President-elect Donald Trump had on Sunday, announced he would release classified documents related to the assassinations of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and U.S civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr after his inauguration.
Trump, whose swearing in ceremony takes place in the White House on Monday, had promised on the campaign trail to release classified intelligence and law enforcement files on the 1963 assassination of JFK, as America’s 35th president is famously known.
The soon-to-be president had made a similar promise during his 2017 to 2021 tenure, and he did actually release some documents related to JFK’s 1963 murder. But he ultimately caved to pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and kept most of the documents under wraps, citing national security concerns.
At the time of filing this report, Trump had yet to specify which documents would be released, but he did not promise a blanket declassification. Note that Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were both assassinated in 1968.
JFK’s assassination is a particular source of enduring fascination in the United States. The murder has been ascribed to a sole gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Justice Department and other federal government bodies reaffirmed this conclusion in subsequent decades. But yet, polls have shown many Americans believe his death was a result of a wider conspiracy.
Trump’s health and human services secretary-designate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Robert Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy, has said he believes the CIA was involved in his uncle’s death – an allegation the agency has claimed is baseless.
Robert Kennedy Jr. also said he believes his father was assassinated by multiple gunmen –an assertion that contradicts official accounts.
