President Trump promised to declassify documents related to the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. Trump was a target of two failed assassination attempts, making the cases more personal to him.
“…in the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Trump said in a resurfaced video.
In addition, the president said he would declassify documents related to “other topics of great public interest.”
“It’s All Gonna Be Released, Uncle Sam!” Trump said.
Trump said declassifying the documents would be “a first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government.”
The U.S. government maintains a certain level of transparency by allowing citizens to request documents of interest via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). However, some crucial information remains heavily classified and redacted to be of any particular use.
Subsequently, Trump intends to move a step further by reversing “the overclassification of government documents,” which prevents citizens from knowing the full extent of government corruption and complicity in various affairs.
Robert F. Kennedy’s son, RFK Jr., who the president tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has accused the CIA of complicity in his uncle JFK’s assassination.
“There is overwhelming evidence that the CIA was involved in his murder. I think it’s beyond a reasonable doubt at this point,” RFK Jr. said during a WABC 770 radio interview.
However, a House Select Committee on Assassinations report said the Secret Service, the CIA, and the FBI were not involved in JFK’s murder but attributed it to “conspiracy.”
While Trump released some of JFK files during his first administration, he said Mike Pompeo begged him to stop declassifying the rest.
Similarly, others have also accused the FBI of involvement in MLK Jr.’s assassination after continued surveillance and harassment, especially due to his popular opposition to the Vietnam War.
However, both the CIA and the FBI deny that they were involved in those political assassinations.
Trump was the subject of a federal prosecution related to classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022. However, he insisted that the documents were already declassified. If not, perhaps those documents were overclassified.
Besides Trump, other experts, such as Historian Matthew Connelly, believe the government overclassifies documents.
“More and more of what’s classified are things like PowerPoint presentations and spreadsheets and text messages and video conferences,” Connelly told NPR. “The sheer volume is something we can’t even measure anymore in paper.”
Connelly also noted many gaping holes in historical documents, begging the question, “How much more out there is missing? What is it that we don’t know?” Destruction of records is also a common concern for Americans.
During the infamous J6 trials, a large volume of evidence was allegedly destroyed, suggesting it could have happened in other cases, including the above assassinations.
Coincidentally, the national security agencies were also accused of involvement in some of the peculiar incidents witnessed during the protests.
Nonetheless, the involvement of national security agencies in political assassinations and other controversial issues remains unclear. However, they have been accused of being weaponized for political purposes.
For example, Trump has repeatedly accused the FBI of spying on his 2016 campaign, a claim that was supported by then-Attorney General William Barr, who said, “I think spying did occur.” However, former FBI Director Christopher Wray denied the allegation.
Besides the assassinations, Trump has not disclosed which other “topics of great public interest” would be affected by declassification.
However, surveillance would be an excellent choice. Americans would love to know the extent of various covert surveillance programs the government has carried out as the first step toward transparency.
Nonetheless, Trump had earlier said he would declassify the 9/11 and Epstein files “very early on.”
He also promised to release UFO files.
