US Senator and former Attorney General Robert F Kennedy (1925 - 1968) waves during a presidential campaign rally on Olvera Street at the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, Los Angeles, California, March 24, 1968. (Photo by Steve Slocomb/Getty Images)
Washington D.C. – In the third installment of a sweeping declassification effort, the CIA on Thursday released 54 additional documents related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The release, comprising 1,450 pages, is part of a broader mandate issued by former President Donald Trump to make public the government’s remaining files related to the deaths of the Kennedy brothers and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The documents—now available through the National Archives—include intelligence cables, inter-agency correspondence, personality assessments, and dispatches from CIA stations around the globe. While the newly released material offers greater historical granularity, early assessments suggest the files are unlikely to dramatically shift the prevailing narrative around Kennedy’s assassination.
Robert F. Kennedy was shot in the kitchen pantry of Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel shortly after winning the California Democratic presidential primary. Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian man angered by Kennedy’s pro-Israel stance, was apprehended at the scene and later convicted of the murder. Though Sirhan confessed at the time, he has since claimed amnesia, sparking decades of speculation, revisionist theories, and family division.
The CIA’s latest disclosure contains a wide-ranging “personality dossier” on Kennedy, detailing his Cold War travels through the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1964. These files, the agency stated, reflect Kennedy’s “patriotic commitment” in sharing observations with U.S. intelligence during his early political ascent. One of the longer entries is an 814-page document chronicling the global intelligence response in the immediate aftermath of his assassination, including efforts to counter international criticism and Communist propaganda.
In one cable dated June 29, 1968, CIA officers in Sri Lanka reported efforts to place pro-U.S. commentary in local media. The article, they noted, argued that violence was not exclusive to America and criticized China’s hypocrisy amid the Cultural Revolution.
Still, significant portions of the documents remain redacted—especially assessments of Sirhan’s psychological state. One partially censored passage notes “high intellectual potential [redacted] not properly utilized, due to severe [redacted],” raising questions about the thoroughness of government transparency.
While the release has been lauded by some as a step toward public accountability, it has also reignited long-standing divisions within the Kennedy family. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now Health and Human Services Secretary, continues to argue Sirhan’s innocence—a position not shared by most of his relatives. “Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,” Kennedy Jr. said.
Despite the scale of the documents, the picture that emerges remains incomplete—patches of clarity surrounded by enduring shadows.
