JFK files: Previously classified documents released

DALLAS - Thousands of pages of files related to the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy were released Tuesday afternoon.

Kennedy's assassination in Downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963 has been a point of fascination for historians and conspiracy theorists over the years.

The release of the documents comes after President Trump signed an executive order calling for their release in the early days of his second term.

What are the JFK files?

What we know:

2,182 documents connected to the assassination of John F. Kennedy were released on Tuesday.

The files were prepared by a team underneath U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

Gabbard posted on social media that more files are still in the process of being digitized and will be released at a future date.

Gabbard says there are additional documents that have still been withheld because they are under court seal or protected through other means.

The Director of National Intelligence says that her team is working with the Department of Justice to get those documents unsealed, but that much of the information has already gotten out.

Some of the documents that were released include information about Lee Harvey Oswald's travels to Finland and other places prior to the assassination. One of the documents features an assessment from a former KGB agent, who said they did not believe Oswald was ever controlled by the Russian agency after reviewing volumes of files. Several files focus on surveillance efforts in Cuba and Mexico prior to Kennedy's death that are seemingly unrelated to the shooting. Other documents include follow-ups to requests for information to remain classified in the past.

The release comes after thousands of records were recently uncovered by the FBI.

The FBI told FOX News that approximately 2,400 newly inventoried and digitized records that were previously not recognized as related to the JFK assassination case file.

What we don't know:

The contents of the documents are currently being reviewed by FOX 4 and FOX Television Stations.

"People have been waiting decades for this," Trump told reporters at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. on Monday.

 

Are the JFK files released?

Yes, the National Archive released the files around 6p.m. on Tuesday.

Kennedy family reaction to release of assassination files

What they're saying:

Shortly after the executive order calling for the release of the files was signed, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of former president Kennedy and President Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary told the press the release was a "great move" on the president’s part. He said he believes that the move will bring "more transparency" and it shows that Trump is "keeping his promise to have the government tell the truth to the American people about everything."

Other members of the Kennedy family were not as pleased, calling the move a "political prop."

"The truth is alot sadder than the myth — a tragedy that didn’t need to happen. Not part of an inevitable grand scheme," JFK's grandson Jack Schlossberg said on social media platform X. "Declassification is using JFK as a political prop, when he’s not here to punch back. There’s nothing heroic about it."

Sixth Floor Museum on release of JFK Files

The Sixth Floor Museum in Downtown Dallas, which is located at the site of the former Texas School Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot the president, released a statement to FOX 4 on Tuesday morning ahead of the anticipated release.

What they're saying:

"The Sixth Floor Museum is the only museum dedicated to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a watershed moment that changed the course of American history. As stewards of this history, the Museum is committed to telling the story of the Kennedy assassination and surrounding events with respect and authenticity. Reviewing these documents will take time, and we will carefully consider the insights of scholars and historians," a spokesperson said.

JFK files released in recent years

During his first term, President Trump ordered the records be released under the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

In 1992, Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. The act ordered the archives to disclose all information collected — some 5 million pages of material — on the assassination within 25 years — barring any exceptions designated by the president.

Trump promised to declassify and release all the documents collected with minimal redactions.

Instead, a few thousand documents were withheld during his first term. In 2018, the president said the remaining documents' potential to cause harm to national security, law enforcement or foreign affairs outweighed the public interest.

Another batch of documents was released in 2021 by President Joe Biden. Documents were also released in 2022 and 2023.

What has already been released?

Dig deeper:

To date, more than 5 million pages of documents related to the assassination of Kennedy have been released by the national archives.

Some of the documents include memos from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover written hours after Lee Harvey Oswald was killed in Dallas asking the government to release something to convince the public that Oswald killed John F. Kennedy.

It was released two days after the president was assassinated and hours after Oswald was killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police station.

Other documents reveal theories by other government officials surrounding the assassination.

A 1975 deposition by Richard Helms states that President Lyndon B. Johnson believed Kennedy was behind the assassination of the South Vietnamese president a few weeks prior to his assassination and that the shooting was retaliation.

Other documents are reports of strange calls to foreign media outlets, plans to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro and information from the former Soviet Union's intelligence agency, the KGB, that linked Johnson to the assassination.

Others are reports of Oswald's trip to Mexico City to visit the Cuban and Soviet Union embassies there and agreements with the U.S. and Mexican governments for the United States to maintain close surveillance on the embassies.

Kennedy Assassination

Kennedy was fatally shot in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, as his motorcade passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository building, where 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days after Kennedy was killed, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.

The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted alone, firing three shots from a window in the depository. Many Americans have questioned this conclusion. In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations ended its own inquiry by finding that Kennedy "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."

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