The CIA claims it had no knowledge of Sirhan Sirhan before the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, according to newly declassified files released Thursday.
The documents—part of a tranche ordered released by President Donald Trump, upon resuming office in January—include an internal “blind memo” dated October 31, 1975. The memo states that “Sirhan Sirhan’s security file reflects that he had never been of interest to the Agency prior to the assassination of Robert Kennedy.”
Kennedy was gunned down shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, moments after delivering a victory speech in the California Democratic primary. Sirhan, then 24, was arrested at the scene and later convicted of murder. But the newly released CIA files shed light on the agency’s role in the aftermath—and raise fresh questions about what they knew and when.
According to the memo, on the day of the shooting, various organs within the CIA were tasked with collecting information on Sirhan. The memo says this information—largely background material obtained through U.S. visa records and foreign CIA stations—was quietly funneled to the LAPD via the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. The LAPD reportedly agreed that all such material would remain confidential and unattributed to the CIA.
By June 11, 1968, LAPD Chief Thomas Reddin had created a 23-person task force to handle the Kennedy investigation. The CIA’s Los Angeles chief, William Curtin, liaised directly with the LAPD’s Captain Hugh Brown, sharing intelligence, including information on Sirhan’s family and possible associates. According to the memo, the CIA also performed traces on names linked to Sirhan but found nothing indicating ties to terrorist groups.
The CIA asserts in the memo that Sirhan’s file does not reflect that the agency had any prior interest in him and that its assistance to the LAPD “was [never] surfaced in any way.”
If true, this disclosure eliminates one long-held theory about CIA foreknowledge or involvement in Kennedy’s assassination. However, it leaves untouched broader doubts surrounding the case—many of which continue to divide even the Kennedy family.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now Secretary of Health and Human Services, has long maintained that Sirhan did not fire the fatal shot. “Sirhan is not my father’s killer,” Kennedy Jr. wrote in a 2021 op-ed, pointing instead to private security guard Thane Eugene Cesar, who was positioned behind Kennedy and was never charged.
Kennedy Jr.’s views have been sharply contested by most of his siblings, including his late mother, Ethel Kennedy, who said in 2021 that Sirhan should “not have the opportunity to terrorize again.” Ethel Kennedy died in October 2024 at age 96.
The release of today’s files—part of a broader declassification effort involving the assassinations of both Kennedys and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—also revives the voice of labor leader Paul Schrade, a confidant of RFK, who was wounded during the shooting. Schrade, who died in 2022, spent decades arguing for a new investigation, citing forensic evidence that suggested 13 shots were fired—more than the eight bullets in Sirhan’s revolver.
Kennedy Jr. pointed out that Sirhan fired the 8 shots while standing in front of his target. The first hit Schrade. The second missed Kennedy’s father and was later extracted by LAPD from a nearby door jam. The other six shots came after Sirhan was tackled and hit bystanders.
However, Kennedy’s father was shot four times from behind. He believes these bullets came from Cesar, a new security guard who Kennedy says had extensive ties to America’s largest defense contractors.
Author and Researcher Lisa Pease has repeatedly stated that she obtained records that indicate Cesar was a CIA contractor.
In a 2012 letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, Kennedy Jr. echoed Schrade’s concerns and called for a reinvestigation. “After years of careful investigation, I arrived at the conviction that the story of my father’s murder was not as cut and dried as portrayed at trial,” he wrote.
Some documents previously declassified also include photos of handwritten notes allegedly found in Sirhan’s bedroom. One line reads: “My determination to remove RFK is becoming more and more of an unshakeable obsession.”
Despite those notes, Sirhan, now 81, continues to maintain that he has no memory of the shooting. His claims, coupled with lingering doubts about ballistics, autopsy evidence, and witness testimony, have kept skeptics’ theories alive for more than half a century.