Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has ordered the release of more than 60,000 additional documents related to the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the office announced on Wednesday.
"Today's release is an important step toward maximum transparency, finding the truth, and sharing the truth," Gabbard said in a post on Truth Social. The newly released documents include “never-before-seen details about the FBI’s investigation into the assassination of RFK - including the discussion of potential leads by various FBI offices, internal FBI memos detailing the progress of the case, and more,” according to the DNI’s official statement.
Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic primary.
In January, President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has maintained that his father’s convicted killer, Sirhan Sirhan, may be innocent of the murder. In 2018, Kennedy met with Sirhan, who has been in Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in California for more than 50 years.
After the conversation, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, “I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence,” Kennedy told The Washington Post. “I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father. 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.”
The documents released Wednesday also include audio recordings of the Los Angeles Police Department’s interviews with Sirhan, as well as recordings of interviews with eyewitnesses to the assassination.
The assassination has prompted various conspiracies theories as to the ultimate motive and killer of Kennedy, but Sirhan’s requests for parole have been denied. In 2021, the California parole board endorsed his bid for release, but it was rejected by Gov. Gavin Newsom.