- President Donald Trump has ‘promised’ to release some sensitive files
- The files are related to President John F Kennedy
- They are believed to contain information about his assassination
President Donald Trump has vowed to release the JFK files. The JFK files relate to files containing information about the assassination of late President John F. Kennedy. On 22 November 1963, Kennedy was shot while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Also in the car with him was his wife Jacqueline Kennedy. 10 months after the shooting, the Warren Commission concluded that the one who killed Kennedy was Lee Harvey Oswald, and he acted alone.
However, the assassination of the 35th president has been the subject of widespread debate since it happened. Countless documentaries have covered the case and the government’s findings, but the question among some people remains if this is the truth. The shooting didn’t only cause shock because it was the president, but also because Kennedy was a part of the wealthy Kennedy family. Today, Trump is associated with his son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. JFK Jr is currently the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.
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Trump says he will release more files
On 18 March Trump said he would release the almost 80,000 pages left of the Kennedy files to the public. However, so far nothing new has been released. Many documents from the case were already released under law, but some files are redacted and have been kept from public view.
Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 to declassify documents in the files and the public is eagerly waiting. While we wait for the files, here is a summary of what the Kennedy files are and why they’re important.
What are the JFK files?
The Kennedy files are a collection of documents that relate to the assassination of President Kennedy. The documents contain records, photographs, and evidence related to the association. Many pages have been released with the idea of public interest but others have been redacted to protect the case.
The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 was passed in the same year. This act passed by Congress was made to make the National Archives and Records Administration establish a collection of data related to Kennedy’s assassination. The collection was named the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records, or as we know it the JFK files.
In the files, the US government was ordered to include copies of all government records dating back to 1963 concerning Kennedy’s assassination. Also included in these files was any evidence or important things collected by the police.
Included in this law is the stipulation that each assassination record be released to the public 25 years after the act goes into law. This was in late October 2017 and Trump released some more documents from the Kennedy files.
However, public interest could be overruled if releasing them would seriously harm military defense, intelligence, law enforcement, or foreign relations, and if that harm is greater than the public’s right to know.
Many of the documents have been released to the public.
What is left to release in the files?
Nobody knows exactly what else is left to release. Before this order, the National Archives and Records Administration disclosed that 99% of the almost 5 million pages in its collection related to the JFK assassination were public, this means around 1 percent are still classified. Imagining what is classified is a mammoth task, but it is probably the most sensitive information.
Nobody knows as the White House has not specified which files are being released, but Trump has said they will not be redacted. Stay tuned for updates on the release of the JFK files!
