Trump promises to disclose documents pertaining to the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK.
Trump declares the release of documents as a "first step" towards enhancing government transparency.
Trump promised on Sunday to make public long-classified records concerning the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK.
At a rally in Washington, D.C.'s Capital One Arena, Trump promised to increase government transparency, with a crowd of 20,000 supporters present.
Trump stated that the initial step towards enhancing transparency and responsibility in government would involve overturning the excessive classification of government records.
"In the near future, we will disclose the remaining records pertaining to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," he stated. "It will all be made public."
Despite his pledge to disclose all files related to John F. Kennedy during his first administration, an undisclosed amount of material remains concealed more than six decades after Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records after receiving appeals from the CIA and FBI, citing the potential harm to U.S. national security, law enforcement, or foreign affairs as outweighing the public interest in immediate disclosure.
In December 2022, President Biden made public a large number of documents related to the assassination, but, like Trump before him, he maintained that certain documents were kept secret due to national security concerns.
The president-elect's pledge to disclose additional documents concerning Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the former U.S. Attorney General and brother of John F. Kennedy, raises doubts about how he will expedite the releases.
King and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated in 1968.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act specifies that the remaining files related to King will not be made public until 2027.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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