Donald Trump said “everything will be revealed” as he signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassination of former US president John F Kennedy.
The US president had promised on the campaign trail to release classified intelligence and law enforcement files on the 1963 assassination of JFK, as America’s 35th president is widely known.
The order will also declassify federal records relating to the assassinations of Senator Robert F Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jnr.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mr Trump said: “That’s a big one, huh?
“A lot of people are waiting for this for a long … for years, for decades.”
He added: “Everything will be revealed.”
The order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining JFK records, and within 45 days for the other two cases.
Mr Trump had ordered the substantial release of the John F Kennedy assassination records in his first term, but some were redacted or withheld owing to concerns raised by the intelligence community.
After signing the order, the president handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide and directed it to be given to RFK’s son Robert F Kennedy Jnr, his nominee to be health and human services secretary.
Mr Kennedy Jnr believes the CIA was involved in his uncle’s death, an allegation the agency has described as baseless.
Mr Kennedy Jnr has also said he believes his father was killed by multiple gunmen, an assertion that contradicts official accounts.
The executive order said: “More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, Senator Robert F Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jnr, the Federal Government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events.
“Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay.”
