President Trump indicated late Friday that he would ensure the release of all records compiled during the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, with some redactions, in order “to put any and all conspiracy theories to rest.”
“I will be releasing ALL JFK files other than the names and addresses of any mentioned person who is still living,” Trump announced in a tweet, saying he consulted with White House chief of staff John Kelly, the CIA and other federal agencies.
“I am doing this for reasons of full disclosure, transparency and in order to put any and all conspiracy theories to rest,” Trump added.
Trump tweeted earlier Friday that he hoped “just about everything” concerning the 1963 assassination of JFK would be released to the public.
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The Trump administration released about 2,800 files late Thursday, with the White House saying that hundreds more would be released with redactions “only in the rarest of circumstances” on a rolling basis over the next six months.
Trump initially said on Thursday evening that he had “no choice” but to withhold information as requested by government agencies, citing national security concerns. Officials indicated that the concerns originated mostly from the CIA and FBI.
Thursday marked the federal government’s deadline to release 3,100 unseen files, a deadline that was set by Congress under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. The documents have been held in the National Archives.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a Fox News interview on Friday evening that the administration was working to expedite the release of the additional documents.
“We are working this weekend. We are going to be working every way possible to expedite the production of these documents as completely as possible and they will be virtually, completely revealed from the FBI files,” he said.
The assassination of Kennedy, who was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, has been the subject of conspiracy theories for more than 50 years.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a longtime congressman who befriended Kennedy during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, told The Hill this week that he didn’t think the latest document release would end questions about the 35th president’s death.
“I think there will be people — be historians or scholars and writers — [who] would raise some questions about what happened and how it happened,” Lewis said. “There will be people saying, like they were saying 50 years ago, ‘Why did [Kennedy] go to Texas, why Dallas?”