Robert Kennedy Jr. Leans into Conspiracy That CIA Was Involved in Uncle John F. Kennedy's Assassination

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, is blaming the CIA for his uncle's assassination in 1963.

The controversial Democratic presidential candidate made the bold remarks during an interview Sunday with John Catsimatidis on his WABC 770 AM show Cats Roundtable.

"I think there is overwhelming evidence that the CIA was involved in his murder," Kennedy, 69, said of the Dallas, Texas, assassination of JFK. "I think it's beyond a reasonable doubt at this point."

"The evidence is overwhelming that the CIA was involved in the murder and in the cover-up," he told Catsimatidis, 74.

PEOPLE reached out to the CIA for comment on Kennedy's statements.

On Nov. 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, then 46, was struck by two bullets — one in the head and one in the neck — while riding through the streets of Dallas in an open-topped motorcade with wife Jackie Kennedy by his side.

Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine, was charged with the murder, and the Warren Commission later found that the gunman had acted alone. Despite the official conclusion, JFK's assassination has fueled conspiracy theories for decades — a prominent one being that the CIA was involved.

Kennedy has previously expressed doubts about JFK's assassination, suggesting in the past that he was unconvinced Oswald acted alone.

Prior to his recent, more direct comments on Cats Roundtable, he was already known for courting controversy, particularly for promoting dangerous anti-vaccine conspiracies.

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 states that government records concerning the death of JFK "should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination."

Thousands of documents related to the assassination had remained hidden from public view, CNN reported in 2021. Then in December 2022, a large majority of those documents were released by the National Archives. The 13,000 documents released were among the second of two "document dumps," as CNN stated. President Joe Biden made the order in 2021 when the White House postponed the public release due to the pandemic.

Ahead of the document release, Kennedy spoke with PEOPLE, expressing his frustration.

"They should just release the records. It's been 58 years," he said at the time. "Are they trying to seriously tell us they haven't had time to read them? ... And the White House is saying they haven't had time to read them in three generations. It just makes people think that government lies, and it makes Joe Biden look like a liar. He's doing the same thing Trump did: He promised to release them and now he's saying no, the same as Trump."

In April the former environmental lawyer and son of late U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run as a Democratic candidate for president in 2024. His father was assassinated in the same position, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968.

One month prior to filing the paperwork, Kennedy alluded that he would run for office in a tweet asking people to "help me decide whether to run for president."

"If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I'll jump in the race," he tweeted. "If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms."