Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing criticism for pushing President-elect Donald Trump to hire his daughter-in-law Amaryllis Fox Kennedy to be Deputy Director of the CIA after an exclusive Axios report revealed he is doing so because he believes the CIA had a role in assassinating his uncle, President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy Jr. has reportedly told associates that Fox Kennedy—his presidential campaign manager and the wife of his son, Bobby Kennedy III—would assist in uncovering the truth about the JFK assassination, according to two Republican sources who spoke to Axios.
One of them said:
"RFK believes that and wants to get to the bottom of it."
If appointed as deputy to John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Fox Kennedy could access CIA records on the assassination and potentially advocate for the release of classified documents.
Kennedy Jr. has publicly supported theories that the CIA was involved in the deaths of his uncle and his father, Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968. On a podcast last year, he said that "evidence is overwhelming that the CIA was involved in the murder and in the cover-up,” and he described the evidence of CIA involvement in his father’s death as “convincing” though “circumstantial.”
Trump also appears poised to help Kennedy Jr. pursue his goals, having pledged to release the remaining JFK assassination files.
Following Kennedy Jr.’s suspension of his presidential campaign and endorsement of Trump, Trump announced he would “establish a new independent presidential commission on assassination attempts” tasked with releasing all remaining documents related to President Kennedy’s assassination.
Kennedy Jr.'s motives have exposed him to significant criticism.
The CIA deputy director position is one of the most prominent intelligence roles still unfilled and does not require Senate confirmation—and that makes Fox Kennedy's potential future with the agency even more questionable.
Concerns have been raised about Fox Kennedy’s qualifications. In 2019, she published a memoir, Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA, offering a rare, detailed personal account of her time in the agency.
Fox Kennedy has described being recruited by the CIA in her early 20s as one of its youngest female officers. She operated as a "nonofficial cover," meaning she used a false identity without diplomatic protections.
However, her decision to publish the memoir without prior approval from the CIA’s Publication Review Board, which vets materials for sensitive information, caused controversy within the agency.