In a move hailed as a win for government transparency, the Trump administration has released over 10,000 pages of long-classified records related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy — including a disturbing handwritten note from his assassin, Sirhan Sirhan.
Published by the National Archives on Friday, the files include chilling details, such as a message penned by Sirhan stating that RFK “must be disposed of like his brother was,” a reference to President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated five years earlier in Dallas.
As reported by The Times UK, the note was scrawled on the outside of an empty envelope bearing a return address from a Los Angeles IRS office. Sirhan, then 24, fatally shot Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after the senator had delivered a victory speech following his win in the California Democratic primary.
Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant, was swiftly convicted of first-degree murder and has been serving a life sentence ever since. In documents newly released to the public, he openly voiced support for the overthrow of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson and aligned himself with communist Russia and China. “I have no absolute plans yet, but soon will compose them,” he wrote in a letter also included in the files.
The long-awaited release, initiated by an executive order from President Donald Trump, represents a broader effort to declassify historical records, particularly those involving high-profile political violence. The decision follows Trump’s longstanding skepticism of the U.S. intelligence community and comes amid growing public calls for transparency around assassinations that have shaped American history.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the senator’s son and recently appointed health secretary in Trump’s administration, publicly supported the disclosure of the documents. He has previously suggested Sirhan may not have acted alone and has called for a reinvestigation into his father’s death. “Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,” Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.
While many of the documents had been released piecemeal over the years, much of the material had remained buried in federal archives, undigitized and largely inaccessible to the public. Analysts and historians had hoped the latest batch might reveal new insights—or even a “smoking gun”—but much of it appears to confirm rather than contradict the official narrative.
Still, there are details that may fuel fresh debate. The files underscore Sirhan’s political motivations, particularly his anger over Kennedy’s pro-Israel stance during the 1967 Six-Day War. Some scholars argue this marks one of the earliest and most impactful incidents of U.S. political violence linked to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
The newly unveiled records also raise questions about the FBI and CIA’s investigations at the time. Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, noted the historical significance of the declassification. “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,” she said.
