The Trump administration released over 1,100 previously classified files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday.
These documents, now available on the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration website, consist of over 31,000 pages.
The National Archives holds a collection of over 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings, and artifacts related to the 1963 assassination.
Much of this material had already been made public before the latest declassification.
President Donald Trump had previously indicated the release of the remaining classified files, which was part of an effort to declassify federal records related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump signed an order directing the release of these files, and the national intelligence director and attorney general were involved in the process.
After signing the order, Trump presented the pen used in the signing to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has expressed skepticism about the official account of the assassination.
On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy visited Dallas, where shots were fired at the motorcade from the Texas School Book Depository building.
Lee Harvey Oswald, arrested as the primary suspect, was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later.
The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone, though alternative theories about the assassination persist.
In the 1990s, the government required that all assassination-related documents be stored in a single collection within the National Archives.
These files were set to be opened by 2017, unless exemptions were made by the president.
While some records were withheld for national security reasons, a portion of the over 6 million pages has been released, with around 3,000 files still inaccessible. The FBI has recently discovered approximately 2,400 new records, which are being prepared for declassification.
Some documents, including tax returns, were excluded from the 2017 disclosure requirement. Previously released files have provided insight into intelligence services’ operations at the time, including CIA communications regarding Oswald’s activities in Mexico City before the assassination.
