JFK assassination is first order of business for U.S. House task force on federal secrets

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is planning a trip to Dallas as she leads a congressional task force looking into declassifying federal secrets, including those surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Luna said the task force’s first hearing, on March 26, will examine the 1963 shooting of Kennedy in Dallas.

“We will also visit the site of the assassination in Dallas, TX, and speak with first-hand witnesses. Stay tuned!” Luna said on X.

Luna listed several still-living staff members and attorneys from the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination and issued its report about a year later.

“Our @GOPoversight Task Force will interview as many living individuals involved as possible to learn the truth about the assassination of JFK and provide transparency to the American people,” Luna said.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for more details about the trip to North Texas.

Within days of taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the director of national intelligence and attorney general to present a plan for the “full and complete release” of records relating to Kennedy’s assassination.

When Trump signed the order, he said it was a “big one” and noted that people had been waiting decades for answers.

“Everything will be revealed,” Trump said.

The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin who fired out a window in the Texas School Book Depository in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The commission also concluded Jack Ruby acted alone when he shot and killed Oswald two days later.

Kennedy’s assassination continues to fascinate the public, spawning a host of conspiracy theories questioning the official findings and suggesting other shooters could have been involved or that Oswald was acting in concert with powerful interests.

Many documents connected to the assassination, sometimes with redactions, have been released to the public over the years. In 1992, Congress set a 25-year deadline for releasing remaining documents.

Trump allowed many of them to be released during his first term but held some documents back. Other delays during the Biden administration were tied to pandemic considerations.

Trump’s executive order paves the way for additional disclosures about the Kennedy assassination. It also sets up the release of more documents connected with the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.

After Trump signed the executive order, U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced the creation of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets to be led by Luna.

Luna said at the time the federal government has been hiding information from Americans for decades. In addition to high-profile assassinations, the task force also plans to probe such topics as the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeffrey Epstein’s client list and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Flower Mound, is a member of the task force.

He said on X the group is pushing hard for the full release of the JFK files.

“Unfortunately we have not seen those documents, and we do NOT have the authority to declassify information,” he said.

Gill urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release the documents and said Republicans across the country ran on returning transparency and accountability to Washington.

“Let’s deliver on that promise!” he said.

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