Why RFK Jr. Really Wants His Daughter-in-Law to Lead CIA
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly wants to use the CIA to investigate one very specific conspiracy theory.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thinks that the CIA was behind his uncle’s assassination in 1963—and he wants Donald Trump to appoint his daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, to be deputy CIA director so she can deep dive into the agency’s history.
Axios has reported that RFK Jr. specifically wants to use his daughter-in-law to look to prove the CIA was behind the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy.
The popular conspiracy theory, one of many that has sprouted, holds that the CIA was angered by Kennedy for a multitude of reasons, including his firing of then–CIA Deputy Director Allan Dulles, his reduced air support during the Bay of Pigs, his planned cuts to the CIA budget, or for simply not hating communism enough. RFK Jr. has stated his support for this theory multiple times.
“There is overwhelming evidence that the CIA was involved in his murder,” Kennedy said on New York City radio in May. “I think it’s beyond a reasonable doubt at this point.” He also thinks the agency was involved in his father Robert Kennedy’s assassination too, stating that the evidence is “very convincing, but is circumstantial.”
Fox Kennedy as deputy CIA director has divided the Trump transition team, as there are some grumblings that her politics are not sufficiently Trumpy. Fox Kennedy was an undercover CIA agent for more than a decade, and served as RFK Jr.’s most recent campaign manager.
But regardless of who takes the top CIA spot, the JFK assassination investigation will likely be a priority, given its focus in both Trump and RFK Jr.’s campaigns. Trump even vowed to release the very last of the JFK assassination files.
“I will establish a new independent presidential commission on assassination attempts, and they will be tasked with releasing all of the remaining documents pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” he said in August.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas in 1963. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, or HSCA, found that the CIA was not involved in the assassination.