National Archives releases JFK files at Trump’s direction

The National Archives released numerous files Tuesday related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, after President Trump pledged to make the remaining documents available to the public while on the campaign trail and in office. 

The release of the documents follows an executive order Trump signed in January, just a few days after the start of his second term, to order the release of remaining federal government documents concerning the assassinations of former President Kennedy, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. 

It wasn't immediately clear which, if any, documents have been previously released in some form or are entirely new to the public.

The order called on the director of national intelligence and attorney general to present a plan within 15 days for the “full and complete release of records” related to John F. Kennedy's assassination. 

The Kennedy assassination in November 1963 has long spurred conspiracy theories about who was responsible for killing the 35th president and if there was a wider conspiracy of others involved. Lee Harvey Oswald, a Marine veteran who identified as a Marxist, assassinated Kennedy as the president’s motorcade rode through Dealy Plaza in Dallas. 

Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby then shot and killed Oswald two days later while Oswald was about to be transferred to a different jail. 

The Warren Commission, formed to investigate the killings, concluded that Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy and so did Ruby in killing Oswald. But conspiracy theories, including ones arguing involvement from the CIA, the mafia and the possibility of a second shooter, have lingered. 

Congress passed legislation in 1992 requiring all remaining government records concerning the John F. Kennedy assassination to be released by October 2017, unless certain information posed risks to national defense or intelligence. 

Trump pledged the full release of documents during his first term but issued an extension to keep certain documents private while releasing some in 2018. The National Archives released nearly 13,000 additional records in 2022 following an order from then-President Biden, but he issued another extension for others. 

Trump said Monday that more than 80,000 pages would be released.

Experts have cautioned that the final batch of documents yet to be released are unlikely to contain major revelations unknown to the public. The overwhelming majority of files related to the assassination have already been made public.

“I said during the campaign I’d do it, and I’m a man of my word,” Trump said Monday on releasing the documents. 

The release came after the anticipated release of files related to the activities of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019. But the information released in the first phase of documents didn’t provide new insight, as the documents had either been made public in court cases or previously been reported on, causing some uproar among MAGA loyalists.