Trump releases thousands of files on JFK assassination

Unredacted files related to the 1963 assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy were released on Tuesday. Conspiracy theories still swirl around his death.

The Trump administration on Tuesday released thousands of previously classified documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.

This follows an executive order made by President Donald Trump shortly after he took office directing the release of unredacted government files about Kennedy's killing.

Kennedy was shot during a visit to Dallas, Texas in November 1963, but conspiracy theories still swirl around his death.

More than 1,100 files containing more than 31,000 pages were posted on the National Archives website on Tuesday evening.

Trump estimates that more than 80,000 new pages will be unsealed.

In the past decades, authorities have already released tens of thousands of documents.

What is the significance of the released JFK files?

Several JFK experts said they had teams already combing through the new material, and it would take time to assess the flood of files.

"We have a lot of work to do for a long time to come, and people just have to accept that," Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of "The Kennedy Half-Century," told the Associated Press news agency.

Kennedy's murder has been attributed to a sole gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine who defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.

But polls show many Americans still believe his death was a result of a conspiracy.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery