Thousands of new JFK assassination files set to be released after Trump announcement
A new batch of approximately 80,000 unredacted files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) is set to be released Tuesday after President Donald Trump made the long-awaited announcement just one day earlier.
"So, people have been waiting for decades for this, and I’ve instructed my people… lots of different people, [director of national intelligence] Tulsi Gabbard, that they must be released tomorrow," Trump said during a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
"You got a lot of reading. I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything. I said, ‘just don’t redact, you can’t redact.'"
Trump also commented that the files would be "very interesting."
Back in January, Trump signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of JFK, his brother Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) and civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK). The order requested that the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the attorney general submit a proposed plan for the JFK files release by February 7.
Both offices, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President, had until the end of the day to submit their proposed plan.
DNI and other officials were expected to submit their proposed release plans for the RFK and MLK files on March 9.
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The JFK files release comes just a few weeks after the Justice Department revealed a batch of Jeffrey Epstein files in late February. Many of the documents publicized then had already been released during the federal criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former lover and convicted accomplice.
The lack of new material prompted an outcry and criticism of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files – and questions about what the RFK and MLK documents could hold upon their release.
The FBI previously said in a February statement that it had conducted a new records search in light of Trump's executive order, saying at the time, "The search resulted in approximately 2400 newly inventoried and digitized records that were previously unrecognized as related to the JFK assassination case file."
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The promise of a JFK files release has been reiterated over the last several administrations, with Trump promising on the campaign trail to declassify the documents upon entering his second term.
"When I return to the White House, I will declassify and unseal all JFK assassination-related documents. It’s been 60 years, time for the American people to know the truth," he said at the time.
Trump had also promised to release the last batch of documents during his first term, but such efforts ultimately dissipated. Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records on the assassination following several CIA and FBI appeals.
Former President Joe Biden also released batches of documents during his term. In 2021, he postponed the planned release of several JFK documents, citing the delay to the coronavirus pandemic.