Will Trump Release The Remaining Files On JFK’s Assassination? Here’s What He’s Said.
Topline
President-elect Donald Trump said during his presidential campaign he intends to release the remaining government-archived, once-classified records on President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, despite delaying their release after making a similar promise in his first presidency.
Key Facts
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now nominated to serve in Trump’s cabinet, forfeited his independent presidential bid and endorsed Trump in August, after which Trump said during a rally in Arizona that he would start a commission to study assassination attempts and order it to turn out all final records on JFK’s murder, in “tribute” to nephew Kennedy Jr.
Nearly all (99%) of the millions of archival materials related to investigations into the assassination are available, but thousands remain classified or partially redacted and Kennedy Jr. has petitioned for their release—he also tweeted a JFK quote on Friday, the 61st anniversary of the assassination, writing, “the very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society,” alongside a black and white photo of the two Kennedys, although it’s unclear if he’s referencing the documents.
Trump first promised to release the complete archives during his first presidency, posting on X, formerly Twitter, in 2017 that he wanted “great transparency” and hoped “to get just about everything to public”—he later delayed a full release, citing concerns about national security in a White House memo.
Trump also talked about the unreleased files in podcast interviews during the 2024 presidential campaign, saying he planned to open the files “immediately” if elected.
In his October interview with comedian Joe Rogan, Trump said he was met with concern “from good people” like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the documents and agreed to delay their release to protect people who were “working for the government” or were “somehow involved in it,” although he thinks “it’s going to be just fine to open” the rest.
In an episode with the “All In” podcast in June, Trump said he has “an idea” what the remaining records say, adding the CIA didn’t ask for the delay but that the intelligence agency “was probably behind” the request and “probably” would have preferred he not release the remaining information.
Key Background
President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas 61 years ago, amid a tense geopolitical landscape. JFK’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot while in police custody shortly after being captured, preventing an explanation for the assassination. In response, President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Warren Commission in 1964 to investigate, which found there was no broader conspiracy surrounding the assassination. Even so, this confluence of factors spawned dozens of speculative theories. Figures like Rogan, who are interested in conspiracies and often distrustful of the government, have called for releasing the remaining files, believing they would provide additional clarity.
What’s Left To Be Released?
More than 3,000 records remain unreleased or are redacted, with information like names or addresses blacked out, according to the Associated Press. That’s because the materials from the Warren Commission and other relevant government proceedings were moved to a complete collection within the National Archives And Records Administration through the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. Under the Act, more than five million records were entered into a collection and legally required—except for information posing a risk to national security—to be released in 2017. In 2022, Politico reported, citing FOIA requests, that intra-bureaucratic battles have kept these files redacted, and many of these redactions are in place to protect the lives of informants to the investigation. Trump did make some 50,000 available, and President Joe Biden released some 15,000 files but also pushed back the release deadline twice as president. “As I have reiterated throughout my Presidency, I fully support the Act’s aim to maximize transparency by disclosing all information in records concerning the assassination,” Biden said in a final White House memo in 2023.
What Have Jfk Files Revealed?
Experts largely say the lastest record released haven’t held revelatory information, the Associated Press reported. But some releases have contained mysterious information, such as the name of a CIA agent who followed assassin Oswald’s mail, according to the New York Times, citing expert interviews. That name, for example, is somewhat insightful but unusable, as the individual has been dead for decades. The release does, however, indicate that intelligence agencies worked to prevent this information from reaching the public, Jefferson Morley, an author and editor behind Substack called JFK Facts, told the New York Times.
