CIA Releases More Documents on Robert F. Kennedy’s Assassination

The CIA has unveiled more than 1,000 pages of documents regarding the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, which includes 54 documents that were previously classified.

On Thursday, a statement from the CIA indicated that the total release spans 1,450 pages.

“Today’s release fulfills President Trump’s promise for maximum transparency, allowing the CIA to provide information that is in the public interest,” said CIA Director John Ratcliffe. “I take pride in sharing our findings on this critical subject with the American public.”

The documents offer insights into the motives of Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian-born man who was convicted for Kennedy’s murder following the shooting in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. They include a psychological assessment and Sirhan’s handwritten notes.

A psychological evaluation conducted on July 8, 1968, suggested that “under no circumstances would we have predicted that [Sirhan] was ‘capable’ of what he did.”

“Obviously, we cannot see him as part of a conspiracy,” the assessment continued. “He could be a tool of a conspiracy, similar to other historical figures involved in assassination plots.”

“However, it is very unlikely that he could have effectively acted under specific instructions,” it added. “Essentially, we view Sirhan more as an impulsive assassin rather than a calculated one.”

One of Sirhan’s notes reportedly states, “Kennedy must fall. Please pay to the order of Sirhan Sirhan,” and appears to date before his other journal entries from May 19, 1968, which have been previously disclosed. Another note expresses a belief that Kennedy needed to be “sacrificed for the cause of the poor exploited people” and ominously states that the then-presidential candidate would be “eventually felled … by an assassin’s bullet … tonight tonight tonight.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services Secretary, has previously expressed doubt about whether Sirhan actually fired the bullet that killed his father.

“I felt compelled to meet Sirhan,” the younger Kennedy shared in a past interview. “I went to the prison because I was curious and troubled by the evidence I had seen.”

“I was concerned that perhaps the wrong person was convicted of killing my father,” he remarked, referencing various evidence, including the autopsy reports and witness testimonies.

Additional records that were released give further context about a trip Kennedy took with then-Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas to the Soviet Union in 1955, during which Kennedy acted as a voluntary informant for the Agency.