When Will the JFK Assassination Files Be Released and Where to Read Them?
Among the arsenal of executive orders signed by President Trump in his first week in office is a directive of particular interest to conspiracy theorists: On Thursday, Trump directed the federal government to “submit to the President a plan for the full and complete release of records.” relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” as well as the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“That’s a big question, right? “Many people have been waiting for this for a long time—years, decades,” the president said after signing the decree. The full text of the decree can be read here.
How to see declassified documents on the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK
If you’re hoping Trump’s order will result in the feds downloading tons of juicy files this afternoon, you’ll be disappointed: We’re still talking about the federal government. In lieu of Instagram revelations, the order gives the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General 15 days to review records related to the JFK assassination, 45 days to review records related to MLK and RFK, and then “submit a plan” to the President for the “full and complete release of these records.” “
Any new JFK files that are released will likely join the JFK archive maintained by the National Security Agency , where they will join the nearly 5 million pages of records related to the JFK assassination that are already publicly available. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, 97% of government documents related to the assassination of JFK are already publicly available.
Will we see all the documents related to the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK?
It remains to be seen whether the president will release the full, unredacted files and documents related to the killings. There’s nothing stopping Trump from looking at the plan, saying “fantastic job” and doing nothing.
The President has the discretion to weigh the public interest in disclosing information against information that could harm intelligence or military operations, law enforcement, or international relations. How Trump might evaluate these options is unclear, although the executive order states that “all records in the federal government’s possession relating to each of these killings are also of public interest.”
Hasn’t this already happened?
If this news gives you a vague sense of déjà vu, that’s understandable. Back in 2017, during Trump’s first term, the president announced he was opening JFK’s files:
This tweet is currently unavailable. It may be downloading or has been deleted.
Since then, crumbs of new information about JFK’s assassination have been released, but there are still thousands of sealed documents and countless redactions that could be removed from public records.
The real big news may not be about Kennedy.
Conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy became part of American culture shortly after the shooting, and, to a lesser extent, alternative theories about RFK’s death, so all publicly available documents relating to both Kennedy assassinations were published. have been carefully studied by generations of amateur researchers and historians. But public interest in the conspiracies surrounding the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. has not been so prevalent and could lead to the greatest revelations yet – if the files related to the assassination actually see the light of day.
Members of King’s family have long argued that the official story that King was shot to death by petty criminal James Earl Ray is a lie, pointing to the FBI’s lengthy surveillance and harassment campaign against King and other inconsistencies in the evidence surrounding the killing. In 1979, the US House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that “there was a likelihood of a conspiracy to assassinate Dr. King.”