PRESIDENT TRUMP ORDERS DECLASSIFICATION OF JFK, RFK, AND MLK ASSASSINATION FILES

WHITE HOUSE MEDIA STATEMENT: PROVIDING AMERICANS THE TRUTH AFTER SIX DECADES OF SECRECY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order entitled Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

• The Executive Order establishes the policy that, more than 50 years after these assassinations, the victims’ families and the American people deserve the truth.
• Specifically, the Order directs the Director of National Intelligence and other appropriate officials to:
  • (1) Present a plan within 15 days for the full and complete release of all John F. Kennedy assassination records; and
  • (2) Immediately review the records relating to the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations and present a plan for their full and complete release within 45 days.

PRESIDENT TRUMP IS ENDING THE ENDLESS DELAYS: In his first term, President Trump ordered agencies to move toward disclosing more information about the John F. Kennedy assassination, and now he is ordering that the work be completed.

• The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 required all records related to the assassination be released in 25 years, absent a presidential certification that:
  • Continued postponement is necessary due to an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations; and
  • Such identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
• In October 2017 and April 2018 certifications, President Trump directed agencies to reevaluate redactions and disclose any information that no longer warranted withholding.
  • President Biden delayed disclosure in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
• In this Order, President Trump finds that continued withholding of the John F. Kennedy records is not in the public interest and is long overdue. He also concludes that releasing the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination records is in the public interest.

PRESIDENT TRUMP DELIVERS ON PROMISE TO RELEASE ASSASSINATION RECORDS: President Trump promised during his campaign to release assassination records to give Americans the truth.

• President Trump pledged on multiple occasions to release the JFK files, specifically stating in June 2024 that he would do so “early on.”
• President Trump: “When I return to the White House, I will declassify and unseal all JFK assassination related documents. It’s been 60 years, time for the American people to know the TRUTH!”

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