Trump suggests he'll allow release of classified files on Kennedy assassination
President Trump said Saturday that he intends to allow the release of long-classified files on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, a move that could shed light on a tragedy that has stirred conspiracy theories for decades.
The National Archives has until Oct. 26 to disclose the remaining thousands of never-seen government documents on the 1963 assassination, unless Trump changes course and tries to block their release.
“Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
However, to what additional information the president was referring was unclear.
The CIA and FBI, whose records make up the bulk of the batch, won't say whether they've appealed to the Trump administration to keep them under wraps.
"The American public deserves to know the facts, or at least they deserve to know what the government has kept hidden from them for all these years," Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of a book about Kennedy, said in an email to The Associated Press.
It's unlikely the documents contain any big revelations about Kennedy's killing, said Judge John Tunheim, who was chairman of the independent agency in the 1990s that made public many assassination records and decided how long others could remain secret.
Sabato and other JFK scholars believe the trove of files may provide insight into assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's trip to Mexico City weeks before the killing.
During the trip, Oswald visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies.
His stated reason for going was to get visas that would allow him to enter Cuba and the Soviet Union, according to the Warren Commission, the investigative body established by President Lyndon B. Johnson. However, much about the trip remains unknown.
Among the protected information up for release is details about the arrangements the U.S. entered into with the Mexican government that allowed it to have close surveillance of those and other embassies, said Tunheim, a federal judge in Minnesota.
Kennedy experts also hope to see the full report on Oswald's trip to Mexico City from staffers of the House committee that investigated the assassination, said Rex Bradford, president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which publishes assassination records.
The White House didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
The FBI declined to comment on whether it has asked Trump to keep the files hidden. A CIA spokeswoman would say only that it "continues to engage in the process to determine the appropriate next steps with respect to any previously-unreleased CIA information."
Congress mandated in 1992 that all assassination documents be released within 25 years, unless the president asserts that doing so would harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations. The still-secret documents include more than 3,000 that have never been seen by the public and more than 30,000 that have been released previously, but with redactions.
The files that were withheld in full were those the Assassination Records Review Board deemed "not believed relevant," Tunheim said. Its members sought to ensure they weren't hiding any information directly related to Kennedy's assassination, but there may be nuggets of information in the files that they didn't realize was important two decades ago, he said.
"There could be some jewels in there because in our level of knowledge in the 1990s is maybe different from today," Tunheim said.
The National Archives would not say whether any agencies have appealed the release of the documents.
The Archives in July published online more than 440 never-before-seen assassination documents and thousands of others that had been released previously with redactions.
Among those documents was a 1975 internal CIA memo that questioned whether Oswald became motivated to kill Kennedy after reading an AP article in a newspaper that quoted Fidel Castro as saying "U.S. leaders would be in danger if they helped in any attempt to do away with leaders of Cuba."
"Oswald might have had a clear motive, one that we have never really understood for killing Kennedy, because he thought that by killing Kennedy he might be saving the life of Fidel Castro," said Philip Shenon, a former New York Times reporter who has written a book about Kennedy's assassination.
Some of the files will likely remain under wraps, experts say.
It's unlikely the National Archives will release some IRS records, including the tax returns of Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald, Bradford said.
Sabato said he also suspects that some key records may also have been destroyed before the 1992 law ordered that all the files be housed in the National Archives.
I was a kid when JFK was assassinated and watched much of it live on TV.
I was sitting on the floor of the living room, watching live as they brought out Oswald. Mom was in the kitchen, cooking when she looked at me and said, "What's the matter 40", as I guess I had turned pale. I replied, "Somebody got shot!"
I hope they shed some more light on the Jack Ruby/Carlos Marcello connection. This conspiracy theory is about the most valid one out there. Ruby was just some strip club owner/mobster wannabe that supposedly owed mob kingpin Marcello a lot of money, and they did communicate with each other. Marcello hated the Kennedy's as they were trying to put him away for life. There's no way Ruby killed Oswald out of his sense of patriotism or love for JFK.
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. - John Muir
I firmly believe this information will end up being as insightful as the contents of Al Capone’s Vault, but as a free people we should never have had to wait 54 years for this information to be released.
NOVA, with today's Science, did an in depth study of the assassination and completely confirmed the Warren Commissions views of the shooting. From the way the heads moved to the mystery bullet and the single shooter. It was quite remarkable that with lasers and impact gels how accurate those boys were back in the day.
So, somebody died it would have affected or what? I had a great scrapbook in grade school of JFK and his assassination. Good stuff to get out there. Just sad period in America.
"Every responsibility implies opportunity, and every opportunity implies responsibility." Otis Allen Glazebrook, 1880
NOVA, with today's Science, did an in depth study of the assassination and completely confirmed the Warren Commissions views of the shooting. From the way the heads moved to the mystery bullet and the single shooter. It was quite remarkable that with lasers and impact gels how accurate those boys were back in the day.
A recommended must watch!
Yeah, I saw that too. Great viewing. I felt 75-25 Oswald was the lone shooter before watching that but flipped to 100% sure after. They did a fantastic job.
There may be a conspiracy as to why he did it and the Ruby shooting, but Lee was the only dude pulling the trigger that day.
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
“You're not going to convince me he (Lee Harvey Oswald) could make those shots. Because I tried them, and I'm an expert marksman. He wasn't. And I couldn't do them.”
As the one comedian (can't think of his name) says; If there was life on other planets we would know it, because our government would have sent them foreign aid by now.
At one time I thought there could be more to the story, but the Warren Commission had some pretty reputable and honorable people in place.
At this point, does it really matter?
Even if there was a cover up 54 years ago, I don't think it should be made public. That would be one more thing to rock the foundation of this country, which is already of fairly unstable ground.
JMO
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
Prevailing tinfoil hat conspiracy theories are: 1. Oswald worked for the CIA, because killing heads of state is what they did/do. 2. Oswald (and Ruby) worked for the Mafia, who wanted revenge for RFK's Justice Dept investigating them. 3. Oswald worked for Castro, in revenge for the Bay of Pigs invasion attempt. 4. Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan both worked for Joe DiMaggio, who wanted revenge on the Kennedys for killing Marilyn.
Okay, I made the last one up, but it would be a heckuva fun novel.
So I read somewhere that by law, the documents were gonna be released anyway.
Is that true? Does that mean trump took credit for something that was gonna happen anyway?
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
The National Archives has until Oct. 26 to disclose the remaining thousands of never-seen government documents on the 1963 assassination, unless Trump changes course and tries to block their release.
-Second line of my opening post.
“Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
So I read somewhere that by law, the documents were gonna be released anyway.
Is that true? Does that mean trump took credit for something that was gonna happen anyway?
Not exactly, the President can rule that releasing the documents could harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations and block the release.
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