(WASHINGTON) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggested Friday that a newly released batch of documents related to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy raise “more questions than answers.”
Her comment comes after doubts and conspiracy theories advanced by the late senator’s son and current secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On Friday, Gabbard and Kennedy Jr. announced the release of more than 10,000 “previously classified” records related to the 1968 assassination of then-Sen. Kennedy, who was shot moments after delivering a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as part of his campaign for Democratic presidential nomination.
His confessed killer, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. But Kennedy Jr. has in the past cast doubt on Sirhan’s role in his father’s death and vocally supported his release from prison.
On Friday, Gabbard suggested in an interview with the Daily Wire that the new records, which include previously undisclosed FBI records about Sirhan’s contacts prior to the killing, raise fresh questions about the long-accepted narrative of Kennedy’s assassination.
“There’s no ‘smoking gun,"” Gabbard said. “But there are a lot of interesting things that have not been previously known that really call into question what really happened and who was behind it.”
“There are more questions than answers,” she continued.
Among the newly released documents are several frantic cables distributed in the hours after Kennedy’s assassination by federal investigators, who gave their investigation the code-name “KENSALT.”
Records show that FBI field offices from Birmingham to Boston scrambled to gather information on Sirhan’s background, contacts, and other leads. The records also include interviews with witnesses and responding police officers.
One file includes a hand-written note purportedly penned by Sirhan calling for Kennedy to be “disposed of like his brother was,” referring to President John F. Kennedy, who was killed five years earlier.
Robert Kennedy Jr. said in a statement on Friday that “lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government.”
“I commend President Trump for his courage and his commitment to transparency,” he continued. “I’m grateful also to Tulsi Gabbard for her dogged efforts to root out and declassify these documents.”
Attorneys for Sirhan have for years attempted to have him released from prison. In 2011, his lawyer told ABC News Sirhan was “set up” and “hypno-programmed.” Those assertions have gone unheeded. Parole boards have repeatedly denied his release.
President Donald Trump commissioned the release of records related to Kennedy’s assassination in an executive order signed in January. Gabbard subsequently launched a task force to facilitate “maximum transparency” in the release of records about the assassinations of Kennedy, his older brother, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Gabbard said Friday that an additional 50,000 records pertinent to the investigation of Kennedy’s death would be processed and made public in short order.
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