Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The order directs the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to present a plan for the full release of all federal records related to the JFK assassination within 15 days, and a separate plan covering RFK and MLK assassination records within 45 days. Both plans are to be developed in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President. The President declares that continued withholding of JFK assassination records is no longer in the public interest, and separately determines that releasing all federal records on the RFK and MLK assassinations is also in the public interest.

The order does not itself declassify or release any specific records — it requires agencies to produce release plans for the President to act on. Implementation is subject to applicable law and available appropriations, and the order creates no enforceable legal rights for any party.

The Director of National Intelligence, the Attorney General, and federal agencies holding assassination-related records are directed to act. The American public, historians, journalists, and the families of JFK, RFK, and Dr. King are the intended beneficiaries of any resulting disclosures.

Decades of partial withholding have kept portions of these historically significant records from public view. If the resulting plans lead to full release, researchers, journalists, and the public would gain access to federal files on three of the most consequential political assassinations in American history.

The order works in two stages: within 15 days, DNI and the Attorney General deliver a JFK release plan to the President; within 45 days, they deliver a separate RFK and MLK plan. Both plans are coordinated with White House national security and legal counsel. The order sets up the planning process but leaves actual declassification decisions to a subsequent presidential action. No enforcement mechanism or consequence for missing the deadlines is specified, and the order is explicitly subject to appropriations and existing law.