In January 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14176, titled “Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” As part of this initiative, a large collection of records related to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy has now been released to the public.
To make these documents easier to search and access, The Black Vault has created a fully searchable database that allows researchers, journalists, historians, and the general public to explore this newly released material.
About the Release
The National Archives, acting as the official custodian of U.S. government records, was tasked with reviewing and releasing assassination-related files under Executive Order 14176. While many RFK-related records had previously been transferred to NARA from various federal agencies, much of the material remained inaccessible to the public. In 2025, a prioritized interagency effort was launched to ensure that remaining withheld or unreleased RFK files would finally be made available.
This review was carried out in coordination with multiple federal agencies across the Executive Branch. The goal was to maximize transparency, while adhering to legal requirements under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the protection of sensitive information. As a result, researchers may still encounter redactions where required by law.
On April 18, 2025, the first major release of RFK assassination records was made public. This initial batch included 10,185 pages spanning 229 PDF files, containing investigative records, correspondence, and previously unseen government communications.
About the Records
In order to expedite the interagency review process, many documents were scanned and processed in black-and-white format. However, when a page proved difficult to read, the National Archives replaced those scans with higher-quality color images to improve legibility.
All of the newly released records from this April 2025 release are now available for download and review through The Black Vault’s new search tool.
Using the RFK Search Tool
The Black Vault’s RFK Assassination Record Search Engine allows you to:
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Search across document titles, contents, and previews
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Highlight your search terms inside the full text
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View documents immediately in an integrated PDF viewer
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Download original PDFs directly for your own research
Advanced search functions are supported, including:
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Exact phrase searches using quotes (e.g.,
"Sirhan Sirhan") -
Boolean searches using
OR -
Word exclusions using a minus sign (e.g.,
Mexico -consulate) -
Basic word stemming for broader matches (e.g.,
shootfindsshooting)
Records will continue to be added as additional material is processed and released by the U.S. government.
Explore the RFK Assassination Records
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