WASHINGTON — The US National Archives unveiled around 80,000 declassified pages of records related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This release follows an executive order by President Donald Trump, signed on January 23, directing the full disclosure of these long-awaited documents as a matter of public interest.
These records, now available on the National Archives portal, are part of an ongoing effort to reveal all government files concerning the assassination. While the majority of the records have been declassified with no redactions, certain documents remain sealed due to court orders or grand jury secrecy.
Trump’s order fulfills a 1992 law requiring the release of all JFK assassination files by October 26, 2017. However, successive presidents, including Trump and Joe Biden, delayed the full release, citing national security concerns. Trump, who had promised to release the records during his campaign, emphasized that he wanted transparency: “They’ve been waiting for that for decades, and I said during the campaign I’d release them. I’m a man of my word,” he stated.
Though many documents have been made public, experts, including Tom Samulok, former deputy director of the Assassination Records Review Board, suggest the newly released records are unlikely to offer groundbreaking revelations. “There is no smoking gun,” he remarked.
Additionally, the FBI recently discovered 2,400 previously undisclosed records, buried within 14,000 pages of documents, which may contain crucial details that have remained secret for years. Despite this, experts believe the new releases will likely offer little new insight into the investigation of JFK’s assassination.
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