U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday announcing that he would join forces with former U.S. President John F. Kennedy (JFK), his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Documents related to King's assassination (MLK) will be declassified.
According to the National Archives and Records Administration, 99 percent of the records surrounding Kennedy's death have been released, with fewer than 4,700 documents remaining.
Here's what we know:
Thursday's executive order states that the director of national intelligence and the attorney general should coordinate with other administration officials to submit a plan to Trump within 15 days to release "full and complete" records about Kennedy's death.
It added that the same group of government officials would review records related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. within 45 days and present to Trump a plan for their "full and complete release."
The order states that these families and the American public "deserve transparency and truth."
"It is in the national interest that all records related to these assassinations be finally released without delay."
Kennedy, a Democrat, served as president from January 1961 until November 22, 1963, when he was shot and killed while driving a motorcade through Dallas, Texas.
He was accompanied by his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie Connally. Governor Connally was also injured in the attack.
Kennedy was only 46 years old when he died. His Vice President, Lyndon B Johnson, took over and ordered a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate.
The Warren Commission concluded that former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible for the assassination of Kennedy. They believed Oswald, then 24, acted alone. Two days after Kennedy's death, Oswald was shot and killed while being taken from police headquarters to the county jail by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
Kennedy's brother, New York Democratic Senator RFK, was shot to death in Los Angeles nearly five years later on June 5, 1968.
In 1968, he announced his candidacy for the presidential election. After winning California's Democratic presidential primary, he met with supporters at the Ambassador Hotel.
It was here that Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian Jordanian at the time, shot Kennedy. Kennedy was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, but died from his injuries. Sirhan, 80, is serving a life sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California.
On April 4, 1968, noted civil rights activist and political philosopher Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old at the time. die.
Martin Luther King was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, but died from his injuries.
James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old segregationist who escaped from a Missouri prison in 1967 after being sentenced to 20 years for robberies in the 1950s, confessed to killing Martin in 1969 ·Luther King. He was captured by Scotland Yard investigators in London. The FBI concluded Wray was a "racially motivated assassin," according to the National Archives.
Ray was sentenced by Shelby County Criminal Court to 99 years in prison at Brushy Hill Prison in Petros, Tennessee, and died in 1998 of health complications after serving 29 years.
The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1992 requiring the release of files related to the Kennedy assassination within 25 years.
According to the National Archives and Records Administration, approximately 320,000 documents have been reviewed since the law was passed, 99% of which have been made public.
The deadline by which all documents were supposed to be released was 2017, Trump's first term. Under pressure from the CIA and FBI, Trump released about 2,800 more documents but withheld hundreds more pending review.
In 2023, President Joe Biden released approximately 17,000 additional documents, of which 4,684 documents related to Kennedy's death remain partially or fully withheld.
The three assassinations, especially JFK's, have been shrouded in mystery as the CIA and FBI kept several documents secret, sparking conspiracy theories.
The American public, government officials and even some family members of late leaders have expressed doubts about the final conclusions of the investigations into the deaths. Some believe the alleged killer did not act alone and that important details about the murder have been withheld.
"I'm just a little pity!" Oswald said in a video recorded at Dallas police headquarters after his arrest for JFK's assassination. Many interpreted this as Oswald himself saying that he was a scapegoat and did not act alone.
The Warren Commission concluded that a 6.5 mm bullet killed Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally. Many people were skeptical of the discovery and found it unbelievable that a bullet had passed through the bodies of two adult men. Critics also question the bullet's trajectory.
Footage of the assassination shot by clothing maker Abraham Zapruder shows the horrific frame of Kennedy's head exploding as the second shot struck his skull. This part of the film was hidden from the public for many years until it was aired on ABC News in 1975.
The conspiracy theories were also fueled by the fact that Oswald was killed shortly after his capture, so there was no trial.
Trump's pick for health secretary, Kennedy's son Robert F Kennedy Jr, said in 2023 that there was "overwhelming" evidence that the CIA was involved in the killing of his uncle JFK.
He said there was also "very compelling" but "circumstantial" evidence that the CIA was involved in his father's murder.
After meeting Sirhan in jail, Kennedy Jr. said: "I'm disturbed that the wrong person could be convicted of killing my father. My father was the chief law enforcement officer in this country. I think if someone is guilty of a crime they didn't commit, He would be uncomfortable being in jail for a crime he committed," The Washington Post reported in 2018.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s family does not believe Ray killed him and said they believe his murder was the result of an FBI conspiracy. Ray also did not stand trial because he had pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty.
According to a 2018 Washington Post report, Bernice King, the youngest of Martin Luther King’s four children, said: “James Earl Ray had to spend time in prison. It pains me to go through life and pay for something he didn't do."
In 1999, the family of Martin Luther King Jr. filed a wrongful death lawsuit called "King Family v. Jowers and Other Unknown Co-conspirators." Lloyd Jowers is the owner of a restaurant near the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis. In 1993, Jowers told ABC News that Memphis gangster Frank Liberto allegedly paid him $100,000 to arrange the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
A Memphis jury found that Jowers and "conspirators," including "government agencies," were responsible for the murder. The family expressed satisfaction with the verdict. Martin Luther King Jr.'s son Dexter said after the verdict, "After today, we don't want to ask questions like, 'Do you believe James Earl Ray killed your father?'" My Life Everyone is hearing this. No, I don't like it, that's the end of it. "