Trump Promises, Again, to Release ‘All’ Kennedy Assassination Files

Trump Promises, Again, to Release ‘All’ Kennedy Assassination Files

The president said more than 80,000 pages would be disclosed, with no redactions, which he allowed in 2017. An estimated 99 percent of the records are already public.

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By Tyler Pager and Adam Nagourney

President Trump said officials planned to disclose a trove of classified government files on Tuesday about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and he suggested there would be no redactions this time — in contrast to releases during his previous administration.

The National Archives and other agencies have provided no details or a timeline for the release of the files, however, and it was unclear if they would be disclosed all at once, or in batches over the coming days or weeks. Hundreds of thousands of assassination documents have already been revealed under a 1992 law.

During a visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, Mr. Trump said the new release would total about 80,000 pages. He did not provide additional details on what the files would include, but he has long promised to release the unredacted documents.

“You got a lot of reading,” he told reporters at the Kennedy Center, the cultural and political institution that he took over nearly five weeks ago, installing himself as chairman. “I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.”

Days after starting his second term in the White House, Mr. Trump signed an executive order mandating the release of all government records related to the assassinations of Kennedy; Kennedy’s brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy; and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

President Kennedy’s assassination, in particular, has long fueled conspiracy theories, including some that Mr. Trump himself has indulged.

A 1992 law required the government to release documents related to the killing within 25 years, except documents that could harm national security. In 2017, Mr. Trump released some additional documents, but he also gave the intelligence agencies more time to assess the files and include redactions.

The National Archives and Records Administration has said the government has released 99 percent of the roughly 320,000 documents that have been reviewed since 1992. But thousands of documents have remained fully or partially withheld for national security reasons or because they are under grand jury seal or related reasons.

Historians have said they do not expect any major new revelations in these documents, or any information that would contradict the basic circumstances of the case. Every government authority that has examined Kennedy’s death has come to the same conclusion: He was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, who fired a rifle from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository on Nov. 22, 1963.

But polls have consistently shown that most Americans still believe that someone other than Oswald must have been involved, in part because the evidence from government agencies that investigated the killing was hidden for so long.

When the Biden administration released a raft of Kennedy assassination papers in 2023, officials said they were confident that none of the withheld information would change the basic understanding of the assassination.

Nonetheless, any new details are eagerly pored over by historians and conspiracy theorists alike. Experts said they were waiting to inspect the documents set to be released on Tuesday in hopes of discovering at least a few new historical nuggets about the last time a president was killed in office.

This is likely to be one of the last releases of Kennedy documents, considering how few are left to be disclosed. However, the F.B.I. said in February that it had discovered about 2,400 new documents during a search after Mr. Trump’s order, although it gave no indication of what they might contain.

It’s unclear if those documents will be part of the release that Mr. Trump said would happen on Tuesday.

The Trump Administration’s First 100 Days

• Deportations: The Trump administration has asked a federal judge to dissolve the orders he put in place barring it from deporting suspected members of a Venezuelan street gang from the country under a rarely invoked wartime statute called the Alien Enemies Act.
• Medical Research at Columbia: Dozens of medical and scientific studies are ending or at risk of ending, leaving researchers scrambling to find alternative funding.
• U.S. Military Academies: President Trump moved to stack the boards overseeing U.S. military service academies with conservative activists and political allies, including Michael T. Flynn and Walt Nauta, who were charged in connection with earlier investigations of Trump and his presidential campaign.
• E.P.A.: The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research department, firing chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
• Law Firms Questioned: Trump’s acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sent letters to 20 law firms requesting information about their diversity, equity and inclusion-related employment practices.
• V.A.: The Department of Veterans Affairs is phasing out gender-affirming medical treatments for veterans, including hormone treatment for patients newly diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the V.A. said.
• J.F.K. Assassination: Trump said that officials planned to disclose a trove of classified government files about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and suggested that there would be no redactions this time.

How We Report on the Trump Administration

Hundreds of readers asked about our coverage of the president. Times editors and reporters responded to some of the most common questions.