# Long-Awaited JFK Assassination Files Released, Raising Questions of Transparency and Impact
**WASHINGTON** ― In a move sure to reignite decades-old debates and conspiracy theories, the administration of former President Donald Trump on Tuesday released what it claimed to be all remaining classified government files pertaining to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The monumental release, comprising thousands of pages of records previously shielded from public view, followed through on a promise Trump made early in his term to shed light on one of the most enduring mysteries in American history.
The decision to declassify these documents was initiated by Trump with an executive order signed on his first day in office, January 20th. The order aimed at fully releasing government records not only related to the Kennedy assassination but also to the assassinations of his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The release, while lauded by some as a victory for transparency, has also been met with skepticism regarding its completeness and the potential for significant revelations.
As of now, the content of the newly released documents and whether they contain previously unknown information remain unclear. *USA TODAY* has pledged to dedicate resources to reviewing the files and providing ongoing updates on any significant findings.
Jefferson Morley, an author specializing in CIA history and the publisher of the JFK Facts newsletter, offered a cautious assessment, stating, "This could be a joke of a release, or it could be a breakthrough. We just won’t know until we have time to process them." Morley, who has written three books suggesting CIA involvement in events leading up to the assassination, emphasized the need for thorough analysis before drawing conclusions.
Despite the anticipation surrounding the release, experts largely believe that the documents will not fundamentally alter the prevailing narrative that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
While Trump himself remained silent on the document release, his former Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, celebrated the move as fulfilling Trump’s commitment to “maximum transparency and a commitment to rebuild the trust of the American people in the Intelligence Community (IC) and federal agencies.”
For years, critics have accused the intelligence community, particularly the CIA, of deliberately withholding potentially crucial information about the Kennedy assassination. Intelligence officials have repeatedly denied these accusations, asserting that all pertinent information has been released and that remaining classified material is protected solely to safeguard highly classified sources and methods of gathering intelligence.
According to Gabbard, following Trump's announcement the previous day, she issued an immediate directive to the entire intelligence community, instructing them to provide all unredacted records related to the Kennedy assassination held within their document collections to the National Archives for immediate release.
JFK file experts, however, suggest that most of these documents have already been publicly available, albeit with minor redactions.
The documents were released just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the custodian of the assassination records, accompanied the release with a statement, asserting that the action complied with President Trump’s directive of March 17, 2025. Notably, this date appears to be a typo in the original article, an error likely meant to be 2021 during the Trump presidency, further underscoring the political backdrop of the declassification effort. “All records previously withheld for classification that are part of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection are released,” the statement read.
NARA also emphasized its collaboration with other federal agencies in supporting Executive Order 14176, enabling the release. The records are accessible both online and in person at the National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland, available in hard copy and on analog media. NARA also indicated that not all documents were immediately available in digital form and that the digitization process would continue.
Importantly, NARA cautioned that certain information might remain withheld due to court seals, grand jury secrecy rules, and Internal Revenue Code prohibitions related to tax return information.
The release followed Trump's announcement that the files would be released during a visit to the John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, where he served as board chairman. Trump told reporters, "People have been waiting for decades for this. We have a tremendous amount of paper. You’ve got a lot of reading. I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.”
Neither the CIA nor the FBI, both of which were deeply involved in the Kennedy assassination investigations and the subsequent document release, offered immediate comments.
Reports indicated that Trump’s order triggered a scramble within the Justice Department’s National Security Division to meet his deadline. ABC News reported that a senior official within the DOJ's Office of Intelligence sent an email shortly before 5 p.m. ET on Monday, stating that even though the FBI had already conducted an initial declassification review of the documents, all attorneys in the operations section were now required to provide a second set of eyes to assist with this urgent NSD-wide project.
The process of declassification commenced with Trump’s executive order on January 20th, aiming to fully release all government documents related to the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King Jr.
The FBI stated last month that it had discovered approximately 2,400 new records related to the Kennedy assassination and was in the process of transferring these documents to NARA. The content and potential significance of these newly discovered files remain unknown.
The Kennedy assassination has been a fertile ground for conspiracy theories, fueled by the subsequent killing of Oswald, the alleged assassin, just days after Kennedy’s death.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, has advocated for the release of the files to determine whether any U.S. officials were involved in the assassination or any potential cover-up. Previous U.S. investigations have found no such evidence.
While millions of government records pertaining to the Kennedy assassination have been previously released, some information has remained classified or redacted. Trump stated that he instructed his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to oversee the release of the remaining files.
A federal law passed in 1992 mandated the full release of the Kennedy assassination records by October 26, 2017, unless the president determined that such release would cause "identifiable harm" to military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations, outweighing the public interest in disclosure. Trump, as president at the time, released nearly 2,900 records but kept others secret due to concerns raised by the CIA and FBI about potential damage to national security.
Former President Joe Biden subsequently acted in 2021, 2022, and 2023 to grant agencies further time to review the records.
The documents released in 2017 included details of the FBI and CIA investigations into Oswald, as well as information about covert Cold War operations.
The release of these JFK assassination files undoubtedly provides a valuable opportunity for historians, researchers, and the public to delve deeper into the events surrounding one of the most significant moments in American history, but its long-term impact on public perception and the established narrative remains to be seen. The degree of transparency offered by this release continues to be debated, leaving open questions regarding potential omissions and the true extent of information still withheld.
