A TROVE of documents related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy have been declassified by the Trump administration.
Senator Kennedy, representing New York, was shot and killed in the kitchen hallway of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just after midnight on June 5, 1968.
The recent release of government documents is part of a promise made by Donald Trump to declassify records linked to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, as well as the killings of RFK and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
In March, the Trump administration released about 64,000 documents about the assassination of President Kennedy.
On Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced the release of about 10,000 pages related to RFK’s killing.
“Almost 60 years following the tragic assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the American people will now have the chance to examine the federal government’s investigation for the first time, thanks to @POTUS’ leadership and commitment to utmost transparency,” Gabbard stated.
The records will be published with limited redaction for privacy reasons, such as protecting people’s Social Security numbers, she said.
Gabbard added that an additional 50,000 pages related to RFK’s assassination were discovered during searches of CIA and FBI warehouses.
The newly discovered documents were turned over to the National Archives for processing, she added.
It’s unclear what new information is included in the cache of files released on Friday.
AMBASSADOR HOTEL TRAGEDY
RFK’s assassination came less than two months after he launched his presidential campaign as a Democrat, challenging President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had taken the oath of office after President Kennedy was killed in November 1963.
On the evening of June 5, 1968, RFK and his campaign team were hosting a watch party at the Ambassador Hotel as they awaited the results of the South Dakota and California Democratic Primaries.
RFK emerged on the ballroom stage and addressed supporters after securing both primaries.
“So my thanks to all of you and on to Chicago and let’s win there,” RFK told supporters as he left the ballroom through the kitchen area.
As RFK shook hands with the hotel’s kitchen staff, a 24-year-old Palestinian, identified as Sirhan Sirhan, approached the senator and opened fire with a revolver.
RFK was hit three times and five others were wounded in the shooting.
The senator died from his injuries nearly 26 hours after the shooting.
His death came less than five years after his brother was assassinated while on a presidential trip to Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
DEBATES RAGE ON
John F. Kennedy’s killing has been the subject of conspiracy theories after assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot dead on November 24 by a nightclub owner before he could be prosecuted.
Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination also brought a wave of conspiracy theories, including one that claims Sirhan was hypnotised or brainwashed, or that there were more than one shooter at the ballroom on the night of June 5, 1968.
Those claims have never been proven.
In the decades after RFK’s killing, Sirhan took responsibility for the shooting, saying in a 1989 prison interview that he felt betrayed by the senator for his proposal during the campaign to send military planes to support Israel.
However, later, Sirhan, now 81, claimed to have little to no recollection of the shooting.
Sirhan was last denied parole in 2023.
In 2018, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested the possibility of a second gunman being involved in his father’s assassination.
“I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father,” Kennedy Jr. told the Washington Post after visiting Sirhan at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
“My father was the chief law enforcement officer in this country. I think it would have disturbed him if somebody was put in jail for a crime they didn’t commit.”
