Trump Promises Release of 80,000 JFK Assassination Files, Claims “No Redactions”
US President Donald Trump announced that his administration will release approximately 80,000 pages of previously unreleased files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reports.
The release promises to reignite decades of conspiracy theories surrounding the 1963 killing.
Speaking at the Kennedy Center on Monday, Trump emphasized the extensive nature of the release, describing it as “a lot of reading” about the assassination of the 35th US President, who was fatally shot in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
“I don’t believe we are going to redact anything. I said, ‘just don’t redact, you can’t redact’,” Trump told reporters. “But we are going to be releasing the JFK files.” When asked if he had reviewed the contents of the files, Trump indicated he was aware of what they contained, adding, “It’s going to be very interesting.”
Trump’s announcement follows a January executive order he signed, calling for the release of all remaining records pertaining to the JFK assassination, as well as files related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The order directed the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to present a plan within 15 days for a “full and complete release” of the JFK assassination files.
Last month, the FBI stated that searches conducted to comply with the order had uncovered approximately 2,400 new files linked to the assassination.
The circumstances surrounding JFK’s death have long captivated the American public, with widespread skepticism about official accounts. A 2023 Gallup poll revealed that 65 percent of Americans do not accept the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald, a US Marine veteran, acted alone in the assassination. The poll also indicated that 20 percent of Americans believe Oswald conspired with the US government, while 16 percent suspect CIA involvement.
During his first term, Trump pledged to release all outstanding records on the assassination. However, he ultimately released only about 2,800 documents, as the CIA and FBI requested that thousands of pages be withheld for review
Former President Joe Biden’s administration later released an additional 17,000 records, leaving fewer than 4,700 files partially or fully withheld.
According to the National Archives, over 99 percent of the approximately 320,000 documents reviewed under the 1992 JFK Records Act have already been released. The law mandated the disclosure of all remaining files by October 26, 2017, unless the President determined their release would cause “identifiable harm” to national defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or foreign relations, outweighing the public interest in disclosure.
