The CIA released nearly 1,500 pages of previously classified documents related to Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination, revealing for the first time that the future senator secretly worked as a voluntary intelligence informant after visiting the Soviet Union in 1955.
The newly declassified files, released under President Trump's executive order demanding maximum transparency, include 54 documents totaling over 10,000 pages when combined with earlier releases. The records show RFK provided detailed observations about Soviet life and infrastructure to CIA officials following his travel.
"The records reveal for the first time that Senator Kennedy shared his experiences traveling to the former Soviet Union with CIA, reflecting his patriotic commitment to serving his country," the agency stated.
The documents detail the CIA's investigation into whether RFK's assassin Sirhan Sirhan had foreign connections, with initial searches finding no information about the Palestinian gunman. The files also include memos about foreign government reactions to Kennedy's June 5, 1968 murder at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
RFK Jr., now serving as Health and Human Services Secretary, praised the document release as "a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government" and commended President Trump's "courage and commitment to transparency" in declassifying the long-hidden materials.
The CIA used artificial intelligence to scan its archives for RFK-related documents, uncovering materials spanning from the 1950s through the 1970s. Additional files discovered in FBI and CIA warehouses could add another 50,000 pages to future releases.
These revelations add new dimensions to the Kennedy family's complex relationship with American intelligence agencies, coming decades after similar document releases about President John F. Kennedy's assassination. The files demonstrate how prominent Americans during the Cold War frequently shared intelligence observations with government agencies as patriotic duty.