FBI discovers 2,400 new JFK files (original) (raw)
The FBI has discovered around 2,400 new files linked to the assassination of president John F Kennedy.
Donald Trump issued an executive order days after returning to office demanding that all records related to the assassination of JFK be released.
Now, federal investigators have uncovered a raft of previously undisclosed files that were never provided to a review board set up in the 1990s tasked with going through all documents relevant to the case.
The records, the contents of which are not yet known, form part of a 14,000-page bundle compiled by the FBI following Mr Trump’s executive order.
The order also called for the release of all records relating to the death of Kennedy’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
A review board was set up in 1992, to which government agencies were required to submit all evidence related to the assassination of Kennedy.
Robert F Kennedy sits at his desk at the Justice Department in 1968 - Reuters
The existence of the new records, first reported by Axios, was made on Friday by the intelligence services as part of its efforts to disclose the remaining redacted evidence relating to the 1963 assassination.
Their discovery follows decades of government reluctance to release evidence relating to the assassination, which have spawned widespread conspiracy theories.
“This is huge. It shows the FBI is taking this seriously,” Jefferson Morley, an expert on the assassination, told Axios.
Gerald Leo Posner, an author who specialises on the assassination of JFK, said that the existence of the newly-disclosed FBI files will raise questions about whether other agencies are withholding documents.
He said: “It’s another reason why you will never get a consensus on this case because no one will ever agree that all of the information has been released.”
More in U.S.
Kennedy was shot dead by Lee Harvey Oswald, a US Marine Veteran, 61 years ago while riding in a motorcade on a visit to Dallas, Texas.
Under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, all government documents about the assassination were to be made publicly available by October 2017.
Donald Trump holds an executive order demanding the release of files on the JFK and MLK assassinations - UPI / Alamy Live News
However, the law permitted their release to be delayed for national security and privacy reasons.
Under his previous administration, Mr Trump pledged to unseal the remaining 15,000 documents containing redactions but was then allegedly persuaded out of doing so by Mike Pompeo, his CIA director.
Joe Biden released a tranche of the remaining files under his administration, whittling down the figure to 3,500 outstanding files, but the deadline for their release was pushed back owing to Covid-related delays.
Mr Trump announced that he would set up a taskforce to release the documents during the election campaign after accepting an endorsement from Robert F. Kennedy Jr, his newly-appointed health minister.
In 2023, Mr Kennedy, who claims the CIA were directly involved in the assassination of his uncle, launched a petition calling for the Biden administration to release the last of the government’s records to “help to restore” trust in the government.