The Federal Bureau of Investigation has uncovered around 2,400 secret records related to the assassination of former US president John F Kennedy that were never provided to a panel tasked with reviewing and disclosing the documents, an Axios report claimed.

The revelation came as a part of the review triggered by US President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking the declassification of the files on the assassinations of JFK, along with Senator Robert F Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The FBI found that the records, which have been kept secret to this date, are stored in 14,000 pages of documents.

The White House was made aware of the discovery last week when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence submitted its plan to disclose the assassination documents under President Trump’s orders.

Possible questions over conspiracy theories

According to Axios, the contents of the newly found records are closely held secrets, kept away from the eyes of many of the officials.

However, 61 years after JFK’s assassination in Dallas, the latest discovery could lead to several questions being raised in connection to one of the most scrutinised events in the history of the United States.

The documents are likely to result in questioning of the vetting procedure and release of the information across the entire government. It also holds significance as it could uncover or even answer the mountain of conspiracy theories that arose from JFK’s death.

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Jefferson Morley, an expert on the assassination and vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation which is the largest source of online records of Kennedy’s death, said the discovery shows that the “FBI is taking this seriously”.

“The FBI is finally saying, ‘Let’s respond to the president’s order’, instead of keeping the secrecy going,” Morley was quoted as saying by Axios.

JFK Records Act, 1992

Experts have reportedly said that the disclosure of the remaining records on JFK’s death, along with the newly discovered ones, are not likely to definitively prove whether there was only one assassin or was is it all a part of a broader conspiracy.

Notably, the assassination documents were supposed to be handed over to the JFK Assassination Records Review Board and then to the National Archives as per the regulations under the 1992 JFK Records Act.

However, administration officials ascertained that the newly discovered records had not been submitted or vetted by the assassination review board or the National Archives.

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On the advice of central intelligence agency (CIA), Trump as president in 2017 had delayed the disclosure of the records. Later, President Joe Biden took the office and ordered limited release of the records, a directive which did not fully comply with the spirit of the JFK Records Act.

Meanwhile, those in favour of government secrecy argued to Trump and Biden that completely releasing the assassination documents would compromise “sources and methods” of intelligence gathering.

Trump had reportedly regretted not releasing the JFK assassination records in his first term. However, by signing the executive orders after taking charge at the White House in January, Trump made to sure to keep his campaign promise of releasing the records.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, who Trump has named to be the secretary of the Health and Human Services, had also called for a disclosure for years. RFK Jr., believed that both assassinations, of JFK and his father RFK, were part of a broader conspiracy.

Various intelligence agencies are still saying that redaction be made from the assassination records despite the orders of the US President, Axios reported citing sources.

A White House official told the media outlet, “When POTUS hears about this stonewalling, he’s gonna hit the roof.” While a Trump advisor said, “Don’t be surprised if all these records just suddenly wind up online. He wants to move on and call this a promise kept.”

The new discovery also gains relevance in the backdrop of the ongoing federal lawsuit against the Biden administration, which was filed by the Mary Ferrell Foundation in 2022. The suit alleges that that federal agencies held more documents related to the assassination than those they were handing over the National Archives, including the jailhouse recordings of Carlos Marcello and CIA files of former covert action chief at CIA Miami, George Joannides.