Donald Trump to Allow Opening of Classified Files on JFK Assassination
President Donald Trump has announced his plans to allow the opening of a trove of long-classified files on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
In a Twitter post, he said he would allow the release “subject to receipt of further information”.
The files are scheduled to be opened by the US National Archives on October 26, but the president is entitled to extend their classified status.
JFK was shot dead by a sniper on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.
The National Archives has already released most documents related to the assassination but a final batch remains under lock and key.
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President Trump tweeted: “Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.”
Congress ruled in 1992 that all JFK documents should be released within 25 years, unless the president decided the release would harm national security.
The archive contains more than 3,000 previously unreleased documents, and more than 30,000 that have been released before but with redactions.
It is unclear whether President Trump intends to allow the release in full or with redactions.
According to a Washington Post report, JFK assassination experts do not think the last batch of papers contains any bombshells.
However, the files may shed more light on Lee Harvey Oswald’s activities in Mexico City just months before the assassination.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in Dallas on the day of the shooting and charged with the president’s murder. He denied the charges, claiming he was a “just a patsy”.
He was gunned down by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while in police custody two days later, and the plot to kill JFK became the most powerful conspiracy theory in American history.