WASHINGTON, April 18. /TASS/. The US has declassified over 10,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of Robert Kennedy (RFK), the younger brother of the 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy, uploading the documents on the website of the National Archives of the US.
"Nearly 60 years after the tragic assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the American people will, for the first time, have the opportunity to review the federal government’s investigation thanks to the leadership of President [Donald] Trump," Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard said on X.
The son of the slain senator, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and Gabbard, said in a joint statement that the documents stored in the National Archives had been manually scanned and uploaded to the website.
According to them, the files are published with minimal editing for privacy reasons, including the deletion of social security numbers and taxpayer identification numbers.
"Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government," his son wrote. "I commend President [Donald] Trump for his courage and his commitment to transparency."
In the course of searching the FBI and CIA warehouses for records not previously turned over to The National Archives, an additional 50,000 pages of RFK assassination files were discovered, Gabbard said, adding that they are being prepared for publication. The government will continue looking for other documents related to Kennedy.
In January, Trump signed a decree on the publication of classified materials about the assassination of JFK, his brother RFK and Nobel Peace Prize winner Reverend Martin Luther King. On March 18, in accordance with his decree, the authorities published declassified materials on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. To date, according to the agency, 99% of about 5 million pages from the JFK investigation have been declassified.
Jordanian national Sirhan Sirhan shot Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968, just moments after he won the California Democratic primary in his bid for the presidency. The gunman claimed he shot Kennedy over his support for the supply of American military aircraft to Israel. Sirhan was initially sentenced to death in a gas chamber. However, that year the US Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional, so Serhan was sentenced to life in prison instead. Since 1975, Sirhan has made numerous appeals for his release, being rejected every time.