The Trump administration has begun releasing thousands of previously classified documents tied to the 1968 assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, while a U.S. federal court moves to expose explosive files linking Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to a decades-old drug trafficking and money laundering crimes in Chicago.
On Friday, officials confirmed that approximately 10,000 pages related to RFK’s assassination are now publicly available online, with an additional 50,000 pages discovered in CIA and FBI archives currently undergoing review.
The release was ordered by former President Donald Trump and supported by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has consistently questioned the official narrative implicating Sirhan Sirhan as the lone assassin of his father.
“Nearly 60 years after Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s tragic assassination, the American people will finally have access to the government’s investigative records,” said U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, adding that the declassification involved only minor redactions to protect personal data.
Gabbard confirmed that similar declassification efforts are underway for the 1963 JFK assassination and the 1968 killing of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., part of Trump’s broader promise of government transparency.
Meanwhile, in a significant legal development, a U.S. federal judge has ruled that the FBI and DEA must release documents concerning President Tinubu’s alleged role in a 1990s heroin trafficking operation. The case centers on a 1993 civil forfeiture, where Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to U.S. authorities after his U.S. bank accounts were linked to narcotics proceeds laundered through a Chicago-based drug network.
The accounts, held at First Heritage Bank and Citibank, were allegedly used to conceal earnings from heroin sales in a criminal ring under DEA investigation.
The court’s order raises the possibility that long-suppressed documents tied to the Tinubu case may soon become public, sparking renewed scrutiny of the Nigerian leader’s past.
Kennedy Jr., who was 14 when his father was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, welcomed the release of the files and reiterated his belief that Sirhan Sirhan may not have acted alone. In 2021, he controversially supported Sirhan’s bid for parole, though it was ultimately denied by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
While many RFK assassination records had never been digitized or publicly available, it remains uncertain whether the newly unsealed files will alter the official account of the killing.
