Last Trove of JFK Assassination Files Released

The US government has begun releasing a trove of documents on the assassination of President John F Kennedy – a case that still sparks conspiracy theories over 60 years later.

The release follows an executive order in January by President Donald Trump that required unredacted files in the case to be made public.

Historians do not expect many ground-breaking revelations in the records, which they were combing over after Tuesday night’s release. Trump has estimated 80,000 pages of documents will be unsealed.

US authorities have previously released hundreds of thousands of JFK documents, but held some back citing national security concerns. Many Americans still believe the gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, didn’t act alone.

Kennedy was shot during a visit to Dallas, Texas, on 22 November 1963.

It is unclear how much of the Kennedy material released by the National Archives and Records Administration is new.

Many of the documents have previously been released in partially redacted form, according to experts.

“You got a lot of reading,” Trump told reporters on Monday, previewing the release. “I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.”

But some of the hundreds of files unsealed on Tuesday night did appear to have passages blacked out, according to US media, while others were hard to read because they are faded or are poorly scanned photocopies.

A government commission determined that President Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, a Marine veteran and self-described Marxist who had defected to the Soviet Union and later returned to the US.

But opinion polls over decades have indicated that most Americans don’t believe Oswald was the sole assassin.

Unanswered questions have long dogged the case, giving rise to theories about the involvement of government agents, the mafia and other nefarious characters – as well as more outlandish claims.

In 1992, Congress passed a law to release all documents related to the investigation within 25 years.

Both Trump in his first term and President Joe Biden released piles of JFK-related documents, but thousands had still remained partially or fully secret.

Trump’s executive order two months ago also called on government archivists to release files related to the killings of presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr, both of whom were gunned down in 1968.

The Republican president had vowed during last year’s White House race to release JFK files, shortly after he secured the endorsement of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nephew of JFK and son of Robert Kennedy.

Kennedy Jr has gone on to become Trump’s health secretary.