It's unclear what new information on the 1968 slaying could emerge from the disclosures, several experts told CBS News before the documents were released. Robert F. Kennedy's killing was primarily investigated and prosecuted by local officials in Los Angeles, and files from that investigation — along with records from a parallel FBI probe — have been publicly available in California's state archives for decades with few omissions. It's not clear if other federal agencies hold records tied to the assassination. The administration has also vowed to release files on Rev. Martin Luther King's 1968 assassination, and it published troves of declassified files on President John F. Kennedy's 1963 killing in March. But unlike with those two figures, it's unknown if the federal government retains any still-sealed documents on Robert F. Kennedy's death.
Approximately 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released Friday, continuing the disclosure of national secrets ordered by President Donald Trump. Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving his victory speech for winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration posted 229 files containing the pages to its public website. Many files related to the senator’s assassination had been previously released, but others had not been digitized and sat for decades in storage facilities maintained by the federal government.
Over 10,000 pages of previously classified documents were uploaded to the National Archives on Friday morning. “In the course of searching FBI and CIA warehouses for records not previously turned over to The National Archives, an additional 50,000 pages of RFK assassination files were discovered,” the press released added. RFK was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian refugee, Reuters reported. The former senator was shot soon after he won the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary, and he died the following day, the outlet said.