The grandson of former US president John F Kennedy has criticised Donald Trump for ordering the release of thousands of classified files on his grandfather’s assassination.
The 1963 killing in Dallas is the source of one of the most well-known conspiracy theories of modern times.
Lee Harvey Oswald was said to be the gunman, but was shot dead himself two days after JFK‘s killing.
Theories that have persisted include that there was a second shooter and that it was plot connected to communist Cuba.
President Trump had promised during his election campaign to make public the last withheld records on the case.
He signed an executive order to that effect on Thursday, telling reporters “everything will be revealed”.
However, JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg hit back at President Trump’s executive order, saying there was “nothing heroic” about it.
“The truth is alot sadder than the myth – a tragedy that didn’t need to happen. Not part of an inevitable grand scheme,” he wrote on X.
“Declassification is using JFK as a political prop, when he’s not here to punch back.”
Mr Trump had promised to uncover the documents during his first term but agreed with CIA and FBI pleas to keep some secret.
JFK’s nephew, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is the president’s pick for health secretary and has said he is not convinced just one man was behind his uncle’s murder.
After signing the order, Mr Trump ordered the pen should be given to RFK Jr.
The order will also declassify remaining federal records on the assassinations of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr in 1968, and JFK’s brother, Robert F Kennedy, who was shot dead the same year while running for president.
Mr King was shot outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had been supporting striking sanitation workers, and died in hospital.
James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating him, but later renounced his plea and maintained his innocence up until his death.
The attorney general and head of national intelligence must now come up with a plan in the next 15 days to declassify the JFK files, and within 45 days for the other cases.It is therefore unclear exactly when they will see the light of day – and experts on the case are not holding their breath for any major revelations. (Skynews)