JFK’s grandson speaks out after Trump orders release of classified assassination files

The order includes files on Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Jack Schlossberg was critical of the decision by the president to declassify all the remaining documents concerning the 1963 assassination of his grandfather, John F. Kennedy.

Trump signed an executive order at the White House on Thursday (23 January) to release the final remaining and classified files on the deaths of JFK, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Upon signing the mandate, Trump said: "That's a big one, huh? A lot of people are waiting for this for a long — for years, for decades."

However, Schlossberg does not see the release of files as a good thing or necessary, as he took to X to express his discontent.

He wrote: "The truth is a lot sadder than the myth — a tragedy that didn’t need to happen.

"Not part of an inevitable grand scheme. Declassification is using JFK as a political prop, when he’s not here to punch back.

"There’s nothing heroic about it."

However, despite this push back, many will be looking forward to the eventual release of the files as, although unlikely, many believe the files hide something greater.

People won't have long to wait either, as Trump has ordered the director of national intelligence and the attorney general, both of which are still vacant positions, to spend the next 15 days drawing up a plan on how to release the JFK files to the public.

Following on from that, they will have 45 days to do the same with the RFK and MLK files.

The FBI is reportedly "complying" with the executive order, as per a statement given to CBS News.

The bureau added that the order "also requires designated agencies to submit a plan to the White House for 'the full and complete release of these records.'

It added: "The FBI is identifying records responsive to the EO and will work with the Department of Justice and ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) respectively."

More JFK files had been released in 2022, which the National Archives and Records Administration subsequently saying that 97% of the approximately 5 million pages related to the assassination were public. 

However, it is this remaining three percent as well as the number of released but redacted files that interest people.

In his first term, Donald Trump said he would release all the remaining JFK files, but never managed to so.

The remaining files total around 3000 documents never before seen by the public and 30,000 files that had been redacted.

In 1992, Congress mandated that all assassination documents were to be released within 25 years.