The CIA has released a newly declassified collection of documents related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, in compliance with an executive order issued by President Trump early in his term. The disclosure includes 54 documents totaling 1,450 pages, many of which had never before been made public.
The files include internal CIA reports, overseas dispatches, intelligence updates, and inter-agency correspondence. One document, over 800 pages long, details how CIA stations and U.S. embassies across the world responded to the assassination, investigating the assassin’s background and possible motivations.
A June 29, 1968 cable from CIA officers in Sri Lanka described efforts to influence local media coverage in the aftermath of the killing. The suggested article emphasized that “America has no monopoly on violence,” while criticizing China’s hypocrisy over global unrest.
Some documents remain heavily redacted, including psychological assessments of the assassin. One partially censored report noted “high intellectual potential [redacted] not properly utilized, due to severe [redacted].”
In a statement, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the move: “Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government. I commend President Trump for his courage and his commitment to transparency.”
Read the declassified records
