OAN Brooke Mallory
11:46 AM – Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Following Robert Kennedy Jr.’s remarks that U.S. intelligence agents may have been involved in his uncle’s 1963 death, former President Donald Trump promised this week to make all documents pertaining to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy public if he is re-elected as president.
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“I released a lot, as you know. And I will release everything else,” Trump told The Messenger on Monday.
During Trump’s presidency, it is reported that he did make some JFK records public, but not all of them. His administration had claimed at the time that they were unable to make all of the records public since “certain information should continue to be redacted due to identifiable national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns.”
“I agree with the Archivist’s recommendation that the continued withholdings are necessary to protect against identifiable harm to national security, law enforcement, or foreign affairs that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure. I am also ordering agencies to re-review each of those redactions over the next 3 years. At any time during that review period, and no later than the end of that period, agencies shall disclose information that no longer warrants continued withholding,” Trump’s administration said in a statement in 2018.
41st President George H.W. Bush, the sitting president at the time and the CIA’s former director, signed a law requiring the release of all JFK-related documents into law in 1992. However, other presidential administrations, including the Biden administration, have postponed making the whole set of materials public.
Although he chose not to reveal all of the assassination data, Biden reportedly did provide certain information. More than 13,000 documents, including details regarding suspect Lee Harvey Oswald and his time in Mexico City, were made public by federal authorities in late December.
However, the CIA claims that roughly 4,300 records continue to be blacked out and censored. “We believe all CIA records substantively related to [former CIA agent George] Joannides were previously released, with only minor redactions, such as CIA employees’ names and locations,” the agency stated at the time in a news release, adding that “tremendous progress” had been made.
In an interview with The Messenger, Trump was questioned about whether the public should be concerned about anything related to the JFK archives.
“Well, I don’t want to comment on that,” Trump said. “But I will tell you that I have released a lot. I will release the remaining portion very early in my term.”
This month, the assassination of JFK made headlines around the country once more after 2024 Democratic contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated in interviews that he believes the CIA was involved in his uncle’s 1963 death. Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and former Soviet defector, was arrested and charged with JFK’s assassination. He was later shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who was allegedly suspected of being a member of the mob. Ruby eventually died in prison.
“There is overwhelming evidence that the CIA was involved in his murder. I think it’s beyond a reasonable doubt at this point,” Kennedy told radio host John Catsimatidis in early May. “The evidence is overwhelming that the CIA was involved in the murder, and in the cover-up,” he continued.
Later, he revealed to another news source that, following JFK’s assassination, his father, former Senator Robert F. Kennedy, naturally assumed that the CIA might be responsible. He has also claimed that his father was not assassinated in 1968 at a California hotel by Palestinian sympathizer Sirhan Sirhan but rather by someone else.
Whether the government’s official account, that Oswald was a lone shooter, is factually true has been the subject of speculation for more than 60 years. Oswald had been originally labeled as a solo shooter, according to the Warren Commission Report, but a 1979 report released by a House committee speculated that there were most likely two different shooters in the equation.
Jim Garrison, a district attorney from Louisiana, had also looked into the allegations surrounding the 1963 shooting and wrote many books about it. One of his novels served as the inspiration for Oliver Stone’s “JFK” film, starring Kevin Costner, which increased speculation that the CIA may have been involved.
Kennedy Jr., who is challenging Biden for the Democrat Party nomination, is arguably best known for his opinions on forced child immunization. Biden has currently not made any public statements regarding Kennedy Jr.’s JFK allegations.
In a report that was published on its official website, the CIA continues to deny that it was involved in the former president’s death.
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