Pres. Trump: JFK Files Expected to be Released Tuesday

People have been waiting decades for this. … I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.

President Donald Trump on the release of the remaining classified documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. President Trump says his administration will release about 80,000 pages.

Why It Matters: This announcement follows an executive order President Trump signed in January directing the “full and complete release” of documents related to the assassinations of President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Background: In the early 1990s, the federal government required that all assassination-related documents from 1963 be stored in the National Archives and Records Administration (this collection consists of over 6 million pages of records, according to The Associated Press). When President Trump took office in 2017, he withheld the release of some of the documents due to security concerns (revealing sources or tactics of those still actively serving or connected to the government in some way). This has only produced more questions about the investigative files.

• Conspiracy theories have surrounded JFK’s assassination for decades, although investigations officially concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
• The National Archive says many of the documents have been released previously; however, some are heavily redacted: “The National Archives has over the last three decades made material related to Kennedy’s assassination available to the public, with the latest batch disclosed in August 2023. The agency said in December 2022 that more than 97% of records in its Kennedy collection are available to the American people.” (CBS)
• Documents released may offer additional detail into the way intelligence services operated and provide a deeper understanding of the time period during the Cold War.
• Researchers are not hopeful the documents will provide any “earth-shattering revelations” (AP) about the assassination because many of the documents are public.

Read More: Trump says his administration is set to release JFK files with no redactions (AP)

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (National Archives)