About 10,000 pages of documents related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released Friday, part of an ongoing crackdown on government secrets ordered by President Donald Trump.
Mr. Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just minutes after delivering his victory speech in the California Democratic primary.
His killer, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a long prison sentence.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration has posted about 229 files containing these materials on its public website.
Much of the material surrounding the senator's assassination has been previously released, but others have not been digitized and have been stored in federal government archives for decades.
“Nearly 60 years after the tragic death of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the American people will be able to see the federal government's investigation for the first time thanks to President Trump's initiative,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement.
Ms. Gabbard also added that the release of the documents “illuminates a long-overdue truth.”
The release of the RFK files comes a month after unredacted materials relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released.
The documents provided interested readers with more information about U.S. covert operations abroad during the Cold War, but did not initially confirm long-rumored conspiracy theories about who killed JFK.
Trump, a Republican, has championed transparency and supported the release of materials related to high-profile killings and their investigations.
However, he has also shown years of mistrust of government intelligence agencies, and his administration's release of previously classified materials opens the door to further public scrutiny and questions about the findings and actions of organizations like the CIA and FBI.
In January, Mr. Trump signed an order calling for the release of government documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., who were killed within two months of each other.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the New York Democratic senator who is now the US secretary of health and human services, thanked Mr. Trump and Ms. Gabbard for their “courage” and “tireless efforts” to release the documents.
“Lifting the curtain on the RFK murder case is an important step toward restoring trust in the rights
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
