- The JFK files are the records related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination
- Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 while riding in a motorcade
- On 18 March more pages were released by President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump has released more of the JFK files on 19 March. In 1992, a law was passed that made the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) create a place where they could keep copies of evidence. The evidence dates back to the 1963 assassination. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963.
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He was killed while riding in a motorcade in Dealey Plaza in Dallas Texas. The shooting caused mass hysteria among Americans. Over 60 years later, it still causes conspiracy theories.
However, the government and investigators did determine who the perpetrator was. 10 months after the shooting in September 1964, the Warren Commission, (the commission set up to investigate Kennedy’s death) concluded the shooter was Lee Harvey Oswald. Findings also concluded Oswald acted alone.
The conclusion has not sat well with many Americans. The investigation and the JFK files have been the subject of many documentaries and projects exploring theories around his death.
In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order to declassify other documents related to JFK. He promised the public they would not be redacted. Now that he has released those, here is a summary of what they may say.
What was in the new JFK files?
Trump released over 60,000 pages of PDF documents from NARA that had previously been declassified. Nara has said that “all records previously withheld for classification” have been released to the public. Since there were so many documents, it would take months to unpack all the information.
However, an early review has brought some bad news. According to The New York Times, “Historians have said they do not expect major new revelations”. Since a majority of the pages are released, it is safe to assume that the major events and contributing factors surrounding the assassination won’t be different.
Early reviews of the documents have also suggested they are not organized or categorized like the previous documents released by Trump. This means that the evidence in the JFK files is likely not to draw any new conclusions or disprove the evidence in any way.
So far, media outlets are reporting that historians have not found any new “smoking gun” to relate to the assassination.
Metro findings from new releases
According to Metro, many documents related to “espionage assignments.” Oswald was found to be a former marine who liked Marxism. He spent some time in the Soviet Union, which has resulted in many conspiracy theories about him.
Conspiracies have long claimed Oswald was a member of the KGB, the former Soviet Union government security agency. Metro said that in the documents there was a new note about a CIA official who was told about a friend who worked for the KGB. This official had allegedly gone through files on Oswald and concluded he didn’t work for them.
Previously, Oswald had said, “I’m just a patsy,” meaning he claimed he was being framed or was a fall guy for the president’s murder. On 24 November 1963, Oswald was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live television.
Any other information could’ve died with Oswald.
When will any new information be revealed?
Sadly it will take a few months to reveal any new information in the files and draw conclusions from them. Historians are currently going through the remaining pages, so they have a lot of reading to do!
