DONALD Trump is set to release all 80,000 pages of top secret documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday.
The announcement will fulfil the US President’s long-standing promise to declassify the files surrounding JFK’s 1963 murder.
GettyDonald Trump has announced he is set to release all top secret docs on JFK’s assassination[/caption]
Hulton Archive – GettyJohn F Kennedy was tragically killed in 1963 his death has been surrounded by mystery ever since[/caption]
GettyUS President John F Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, and others smile at the crowds minutes before his death[/caption]
“While we’re here, I thought it would be appropriate — we are, tomorrow, announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files,” Trump said during a tour at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
“So, people have been waiting for decades for this, and I’ve instructed my people … lots of different people, [Director of National Intelligence] Tulsi Gabbard, that they must be released tomorrow.”
Trump made it clear that no documents will be redacted.
“You got a lot of reading. I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything. I said, ‘just don’t redact, you can’t redact,’” he added, describing the files as “interesting.”
When asked if he had seen the contents, he replied: “I’ve heard about them, but I’m not doing summaries, you’ll write your own summary.”
This release is part of a broader effort by Trump to open up government documents regarding the Kennedy assassination, as well as those related to the deaths of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights legend Martin Luther King Jr.
In January, Trump signed an executive order mandating the full declassification of all remaining records connected to the 1963 shooting.
The public has long speculated that unreleased files could shed light on the possibility that Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, may not have acted alone.
Conspiracy theories about the event have persisted for more than 60 years, fuelled by the belief that top-secret documents could reveal new information.
In fact, following Trump’s executive order, the FBI discovered a trove of previously unseen records.
The 2,400 files contained 14,000 pages of material that had been withheld from a board set up in the 1990s to review assassination-related documents and were kept out of the National Archive.
These newly discovered files could provide crucial insight into the enduring mystery of Kennedy’s death.
“I said during the campaign I’d do it, and I’m a man of my word,” Trump added, reaffirming his commitment to transparency.
This move represents the latest chapter in the ongoing quest for answers about one of the most significant events in American history.
The release will be one of the largest dumps of JFK assassination files since the National Archives made nearly 13,000 documents public in 2022.
While Congress passed a 1992 law mandating all assassination-related records be released by October 2017, both Trump and President Biden issued extensions, citing national security and intelligence concerns.
Decades of mystery
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, remains one of the most heavily scrutinized events in American history.
Despite the official conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in shooting the president, numerous questions and conspiracy theories have persisted for over six decades, casting a shadow of mystery over his death.
At the heart of the mystery is the question of whether Oswald truly acted alone.
While the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald fired three shots from the Texas School Book Depository, some argue that the circumstances surrounding Kennedy’s murder point to the involvement of other individuals or groups.
AFPPresident Trump ordered the last JFK files to be declassified on his second day of office[/caption]
GettyLee Harvey Oswald during his arrest on November 22, 1963[/caption]
The so-called “grassy knoll” theory, which suggests that there was a second shooter, has been a central piece of this debate, with eyewitnesses and later analysis pointing to possible gunfire coming from an area near the knoll.
Over the years, conspiracy theories have multiplied, implicating various parties including the CIA, the mafia, and even elements of the U.S. government.
Some have speculated that Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis or his stance on the Vietnam War might have led to a covert operation to eliminate him.
Others suggest that powerful interests, such as the military-industrial complex, feared Kennedy’s approach to Cold War diplomacy and sought to remove him from office.
In addition to the questions about the assassination itself, there are inconsistencies surrounding the investigation.
For example, key documents, photographs, and pieces of evidence were either lost, destroyed, or kept from public view for years, fuelling suspicions about a cover-up.
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