Trump signs order to declassify files on JFK, MLK assassinations

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to declassify files on the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump had promised to declassify the previously classified documents during his 2024 campaign.

“Everything will be revealed,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.

During his first administration, Trump had promised to release all files related to John F. Kennedy, but an unknown amount of material remains under wraps more than six decades after Kennedy was killed Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

President John F. Kennedy (Getty)

After appeals from the CIA and FBI, Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records. Trump said at the time that the potential harm to US national security, law enforcement or foreign affairs is “of such seriousness that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure.”

Trump’s promise to also release outstanding documents related to King and former US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy leaves questions about how the president-elect will speed up the releases.

According to Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, the remaining files relating to King are not to be released until 2027.