President-elect Trump vowed Sunday to release long-classified government records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
President Trump made the pledge to the crowd at a victory rally at the 20,000-capacity Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., telling supporters it was the beginning of an effort to make government more transparent.
“As a first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government, we will also end the overclassification of government documents,” Trump said.
“And in the coming days, we will be releasing the remaining records of the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” he continued. “Everything is released.”
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President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a rally ahead of the 60th presidential inauguration on Sunday, January 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
During his first administration, President Trump promised to release all files related to John F. Kennedy, but more than 60 years after Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, Even now, many unpublished materials are kept secret.
After appeals from the CIA and FBI, President Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records. President Trump said at the time that the potential harm to U.S. national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs was “severe enough to outweigh the public interest in immediate disclosure.”
President John F. Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. (Getty, File)
In December 2022, President Biden released a trove of documents related to the assassination, but Biden, like President Trump before him, said some documents were being withheld due to national security concerns.
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President Trump has also promised to release unresolved documents related to civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of former President John F. Kennedy. However, questions remain about how the next president will accelerate the release. .
Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. (Getty Images, File)
Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated in 1968.
Robert F. Kennedy was murdered on June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. (AP photo, file)
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Under the Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, the remaining files on King will not be released until 2027.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
