The new JFK, RFK and MLK files: what to expect

Donald Trump has signed an executive order to declassify documents about the killings of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. – to the delight of cynics and conspiracy theorists who, for years, have stoked rumours about the notorious assassinations.

Trump's order means that the "final secret files" are coming out on the murders that "shattered the 60s", said CNN.

The US Congress had already passed a law, in 1992, setting a release date in 2017 for most of the documents relating to the JFK assassination. But there had been "no congressional acts forcing the release of records" related to the assassinations of RFK and MLK Jr., said Forbes. It was Trump who decided that the release of those documents was "also in the public interest".

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What happened to JFK, RFK and MLK Jr?

President John F. Kennedy was shot dead by Lee Harvey Oswald on a visit to Dallas, Texas in November 1963. Five years later, in June 1968, JFK's brother Robert was assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning to become Democratic nominee for president – only two months after celebrated civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee.

All three killings are mired in continuing controversy. JFK conspiracy theories have become a veritable cottage industry over the decades. Robert F Kennedy Jr., who is RFK's son and Trump's nominee for health secretary does not believe Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of his father's killing, was responsible. And King's relatives believe white nationalist James Earl Ray, who fired the deadly shots, did not act alone and was instead part of a larger conspiracy, particularly in light of the FBI's extensive surveillance of King.

When will the documents be released?

The US attorney general and head of national intelligence have 15 days to "come up with a plan" to declassify the JFK files, and they must do the same, "within 45 days", for the other two cases, said Sky News. So its "unclear" exactly when the newly unclassified details will "see the light of day".

Didn't Trump already release the JFK files?

During his first presidential term, Trump authorised the disclosure of 19,045 documents relating to JFK, although many of them were heavily redacted at the request of the CIA and FBI. According to the National Archives, 99% of records related to JFK's death have already been released.

Will new details be revealed?

As he signed the executive order at the White House, Trump asked for the pen he used to be given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a memento. But how much the upcoming revelations will appease RFK Jr. and other sceptics remains to be seen.

The remaining documents might clarify the extent to which the CIA was aware of, or even involved with, Lee Harvey Oswald before JFK's assassination – something at the centre of many people's suspicions, Jefferson Morley, editor of the JFK Facts newsletter, told the The Washington Post . Gerald Posner, who wrote the 1993 Kennedy assassination book "Case Closed", said he thinks Oswald "acted alone" but the new documents "might show the CIA failed to report him to the FBI" before the assassination.

Trump has said "everything will be revealed", said CNN, but the new information "may not satisfy" those who hope it will "fully clear the veil of mystery" that has surrounded all three killings.