Donald J. Trump said that once he is sworn in as president on Monday, he will quickly release documents relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. . as part of measures aimed at restoring confidence in the government.
The assassinations, notably that of the president shot dead in Dallas in November 1963, have been the subject of decades of controversy as well as conspiracy theories.
“As a first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government, we will also end the overclassification of government documents,” Mr. Trump said at a rally Sunday before his inauguration, adding that documents related to other matters of “great importance”. public interest” would also be declassified. “It’s all going to be made public, Uncle Sam,” he said.
Mr. King was shot and killed in Memphis in April 1968, while Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed in California in June, shortly after winning the California Democratic primary. These three deaths shook America in different ways, and historians consider each of them a turning point in this tumultuous decade.
Mr. Trump’s statement is likely to generate particular interest among his supporters, given the fascination he has expressed with certain conspiracies and the fact that he survived an assassination attempt in July when he was injured shot while running for president.
