Washington — The Trump administration on Friday started releasing the first tranche of records on Democratic Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 assassination, with roughly 10,000 pages of previously classified records.
The disclosure — ordered by President Trump within days of taking office and backed by the senator’s son, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — could reignite speculation about the decades-old killing, as the younger Kennedy insists his father’s convicted assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, might be innocent.
A CBS News review found the documents include scans of handwritten notes by convicted assassin Sirhan, witness interviews, crime scene and autopsy photos, FBI memos related to Sirhan and his whereabouts before the shooting, correspondence to the government from the American public in reaction to the assassination, and interviews with Sirhan’s family.
Many of the details shared in the files were already known.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the release, which began Friday, comes after an effort done in conjunction with the National Archives and other agency officials to scan and upload more than 10,000 pages, which will be available for the American people to view online “to fulfill President Trump’s maximum transparency promise.”
The records will be published with limited redactions for privacy reasons, such as to shield Social Security numbers, she said.
Gabbard said that an additional 50,000 pages of files related to Robert F. Kennedy’s killing were discovered during searches of CIA and FBI warehouses for documents that had not been turned over to the Archives. Agencies are working to make those documents available and will continue searching government facilities for more, according to the director of national intelligence.
What did the RFK files say?
The documents released so far appear to include Justice Department and FBI memos, as well as photos of evidence collected during the investigation into Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination and clippings from news reports. Some scanned records are difficult to read, as are handwritten notes included in the tranche.
Some of Sirhan’s apparent notes viewed by CBS News include messages like “RFK must be disposed of like his brother was” and “My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more [and] more of an unshakeable obsession.” Other notes from Sirhan expressing hatred for Robert F. Kennedy have been publicly known for decades and were referenced at his trial.
Also in the files: A 1968 FBI memo that offered an assessment of Sirhan, including that he fell from a horse and sustained a head injury in 1966, and family members said his behavior changed markedly afterward.
A June 12 FBI memo describes Robert F. Kennedy’s widow Ethel Kennedy’s “distraught” reactions to the shooting, with one ambulance worker recounting she told him, “keep your hands off him,” and another witness saying she knocked over a TV news camera and hit a reporter in the chest at the hospital.
Some of the documents detail eyewitness interviews about both Sirhan and the shooting. A few of those records touch on longstanding conspiracy theories about the assassination. There are references to witnesses seeing a woman in a polka-dot dress or somebody shouting “we shot him,” which often features in theories about the shooting, though other witnesses say they didn’t spot anybody matching that description.
What could the new RFK files reveal?
It’s unclear what new information on the 1968 slaying could emerge from the disclosures, several experts told CBS News before the documents were released. Robert F. Kennedy’s killing was primarily investigated and prosecuted by local officials in Los Angeles, and files from that investigation — along with many records from a parallel FBI probe — have been publicly available in California’s state archives for decades with few omissions. It’s not clear if other federal agencies hold records tied to the assassination.
The administration has also vowed to release files on Rev. Martin Luther King’s 1968 assassination, and it published troves of declassified files on President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 killing in March.
Why did Trump release RFK files — and is RFK Jr. involved?
Mr. Trump ordered his administration to unseal records on King, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy in late January. In an April 10 cabinet meeting, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the King and Robert F. Kennedy files would be ready within days, including what she described as decades-old documents that “have never been scanned or seen before.”
“Nearly 60 years after the tragic assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the American people will, for the first time, have the opportunity to review the federal government’s investigation thanks to the leadership of President Trump,” Gabbard said in a statement. “My team is honored that the President entrusted us to lead the declassification efforts and to shine a long-overdue light on the truth. I extend my deepest thanks for Bobby Kennedy and his families’ support.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he’s “very grateful” for the release.
The health secretary — who was 14 years old when his father was assassinated — has shown an interest in the case for years, doubting the conclusion that Sirhan was responsible for his father’s killing. Breaking with many of his siblings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. backed Sirhan’s 2021 request for parole after meeting with Sirhan in prison.
Who killed RFK?
Sirhan was arrested shortly after the 1968 assassination, which took place at the Ambassador Hotel while Robert F. Kennedy was running for president, and convicted of murder. He has admitted to killing the senator and linked it to Robert F. Kennedy’s backing of Israel, though at other points, he has denied responsibility or said he couldn’t remember the incident.
Sirhan’s requests for parole have been repeatedly rejected. California’s parole board backed his 2021 bid for early release, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom overrode their decision.
Still, the case has drawn waves of public attention, as some critics — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — claim Sirhan didn’t fire the fatal shots or other parties were involved in the killing. Skeptics typically cite issues with eyewitness testimony or the alleged presence of extra bullets at the crime scene — though other researchers have backed the view that Sirhan acted alone.
Ward Sloan, Christopher Hacker, Ari Sen, Julia Ingram, Alan He, Alyssa Spady, Ellis Kim, Ahn’yae Hedgepeth, Rhona Tarrant and Layla Ferris contributed to this report.
