Trump Administration Discloses Nearly 80,000 Documents Related to John F. Kennedy Assassination

The Trump administration disclosed roughly 80,000 documents March 18 relating to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, according to CBS News.  

President Donald Trump announced the upcoming release while visiting the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. the day prior. He had signed an executive order Jan. 23 calling for the imminent publication of the files, which also included the divulgence of information regarding Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassinations. According to CBS News, Trump stated that he didn’t believe any of the information would be redacted. 

CBS also noted the long-standing availability of the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act that required all of the documented material regarding the assassination to be stored in the same location in the National Archives. Much of the information, although censored, has already been largely accessible to the public, with this new addition adding to the more than 60-year-old collection. 

The topics of these files have fueled conspiracies for years, and Trump recognized the gravity of the long-awaited occasion. 

“I said during the campaign that I’d do it, and I’m a man of my word,” Trump said, according to CBS News. 

In the subsequent days following the release of the documents, ABC News reported that many personal details about former congressional individuals had been exposed, including 80-year-old Joseph diGenova and 86-year-old Christpher Pyle. Both former congressional staffers have come forward to protest the fact that their personal details, including their social security information, had been released to the public — putting them at risk of identity theft and fraud. 

According to the Associated Press,while not much new information was provided on the assassination itself, key details about the Cold War and a possible plan to shut down the CIA were exposed. The plan in question was outlined by Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr., after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba caused him to worry that the government agency “had grown too powerful.” It appears that part of his concerns stemmed from his discovery that “47% of the political officers in U.S. embassies were controlled by the CIA.” Schlesinger warned Kennedy of his concerns, but his plan was never greenlit. 

While the now-available details put to rest many of the conspiracies surrounding the CIA’s involvement with Lee Harvey Oswald, it appears that new theories regarding the former president’s assassination may appear on the horizon.  

Hagen is a news reporter for the Liberty Champion.