Trump orders release of MLK, JFK assassination records
Jan 23, 2025
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Nearly 60 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, new information in his death may be coming to light.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday declassifying federal records concerning the assassination of King, along with President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the White House announced.
The order directs the Director of National Intelligence and other officials to review the records relating to King and the Kennedys immediately.
Officials must present that plan for the King assassination records, and the RFK assassination, within 45 days. The JFK records must be released in 15 days.
"In this Order, President Trump finds that continued withholding of the John F. Kennedy records is not in the public interest and is long overdue. He also concludes that releasing the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination records is in the public interest," the White House said in a press release.
King was killed while staying at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis in 1968. Robert Kennedy was also killed in 1968 in Los Angeles, while John Kennedy was killed in 1963 in Dallas.