Trump administration to release secret JFK files Donald Trump
Donald Trump

Donald Trump

BOSTON. – For decades, the existence of secret government files linked to president John F Kennedy’s assassination has helped fuel conspiracy theories that others besides Lee Harvey Oswald were involved in his murder. Now the public is going to get a deeper look at the collection.

The government was required by yesterday to release the final batch of files related to Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Experts say the publication of the last trove of evidence could help allay suspicions of a conspiracy – at least for some.

“As long as the government is withholding documents like these, it’s going to fuel suspicion that there is a smoking gun out there about the Kennedy assassination,” said Patrick Maney, a presidential historian at Boston College.

The collection includes more than 3 100 documents – comprising hundreds of thousands of pages – that have never been seen by the public. About 30 000 documents were released previously with redactions. The National Archives is planning to post the files on its website.

It was unclear exactly how many files will be released. President Donald Trump is the only person who can stop any of the documents from becoming public and he’s not tipping his hand. On Saturday, he had tweeted that – “subject to the receipt of further information” – he will allow the “long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.”

The CIA and FBI, whose files make up the bulk of the final batch, have refused to say whether they’re lobbying the president to keep any of the files under wraps. Experts expect certain IRS files to remain secret, like the tax return of Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald two days after Kennedy’s assassination when the suspect was in police custody.

President George HW Bush signed a law on October 26, 1992, requiring that all documents related to the assassination be released within 25 years, unless the president says doing so would harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations. The push for transparency was driven in part by the uproar in the wake of Oliver Stone’s 1991 conspiracy-theory filled film JFK. – AP

 

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