Donald Trump Is Declassifying JFK and MLK Files, but What Does That Even Mean?

Amidst a flurry of executive actions that Donald Trump has taken in the days since he re-entered the White House, he signed an order that will declassify FBI files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Lurther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. This declassification comes after decades of conspiracy theories around the assassinations of all three men.

Following the news that these files would be declassified, though, some wanted to better understand what it even meant to declassify a file in this way. Here's what we know.

Inside of the federal government, there is a classification system that determines how public specific information is. Classified files cannot be accessed by the public or the press, and contain information that is supposed to be vitally important to the security of the United States.

The president has the power to declassify files at any time, and it's that prerogative that Trump took advantage of here.

Declassifying files means that files that were previously inaccessible to the public can now be accessed. As a result, the information is now available, and the public can decide whether there is anything in it that is interesting or revelatory.

Trump is not the first president to release documents related to these cases. He did so in his first term, and President Biden also released documents related to the case.

In his executive order, Trump says the classification of these documents is no longer necessary.

It says he has "now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information" on JFK "is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue," consistent with an act of Congress that required the release of the documents by 2017.

"And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government's possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest," the order continues.

The National Archives says that more than 97 percent of records in the collection of 5 million pages are now publicly available. The CIA also said that 95 percent of its collection had been released and that no documents remained entirely redacted.

The release of these documents won't happen immediately. The order gives the director of national intelligence and attorney general 15 days to present a plan for the release of the JFK documents, and 45 days for the release of the MLK and RFK documents.

These efforts towards transparency likely won't stop those that believe that there was some sort of conspiracy at work in these deaths. Regardless of whether anything comes of the release of these documents, though, it seems clear that they will generate some good press for Trump, which might be the broader point.