Researchers and historians are expected to dedicate considerable time analyzing records to find insights about the assassination of the former US president.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has made available thousands of pages of government documents concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy (JFK), prompting historians and online investigators to embark on a frantic quest to discover new insights regarding one of the most transformative events in American history.
On Tuesday, the National Archives announced that “all records previously withheld for classification” have been released and are now accessible either online or in person.
Approximately 63,000 pages of documents were uploaded to the archive’s website in two initial batches, with additional files set to be digitized and posted online later.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, overseen by Tulsi Gabbard, indicated that this release includes roughly 80,000 pages of formerly classified materials.
This release follows an executive order signed by Trump in January, which mandated the disclosure of all remaining documents related to the assassination of the former president, along with records regarding the murders of former US Senator Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Researchers and historians are expected to spend months digging through the records for new insights into the circumstances surrounding JFK’s assassination, which has been a subject of popular fascination and conspiracy theories for over sixty years.
A Gallup poll conducted in 2023 revealed that 65 percent of Americans expressed disbelief in the conclusions of the Warren Commission, which determined that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine, acted alone in assassinating the president during his visit to Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
Among respondents, 20 percent believed Oswald conspired with the US government, while 16 percent thought he worked alongside the CIA.
Scholars who analyzed the newly released documents did not report any significant deviations from the prevailing narrative concerning Oswald in their preliminary evaluations of the files.
During his first term, Trump committed to releasing all outstanding documents but ultimately withheld thousands after federal agencies, including the CIA and FBI, requested more time to evaluate sensitive materials.
In 2022, former US President Joe Biden’s administration further released thousands of documents.
Prior to Tuesday’s release, over 99 percent of around 320,000 documents reviewed under the JFK Records Act had already been made public, according to the National Archives.
The 1992 legislation required the disclosure of all outstanding records by October 26, 2017, unless the president deemed that releasing them would cause “identifiable harm” to national defense or other governmental functions of such significance that it “outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·