In a significant move toward government transparency, the US National Archives has released more than 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The release, made public on the agency’s website on Friday, follows a directive from former President Donald Trump aimed at declassifying documents tied to high-profile assassinations in American history.
The newly unveiled records are expected to shed fresh light on the killing of RFK, which occurred just five years after the assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963. This release is part of a broader federal effort to make previously classified information about the deaths of influential American figures accessible to the public.
“Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,” said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the senator’s son, in a statement. Kennedy Jr. has long challenged the official version of events, claiming his father may have been shot by more than one gunman—a theory that contradicts government conclusions.
The Trump-era directive also included plans to declassify records related to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. However, the National Archives has not provided a timeline for when those files will be released or if more documents connected to the Kennedy assassinations will follow.
The National Archives has yet to comment publicly on the scope of upcoming releases, but this latest disclosure is being viewed as a major development for historians, researchers, and those seeking answers surrounding some of America’s most haunting political tragedies.