Trump says he will release thousands of documents related to JFK assassination

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that his administration on Tuesday afternoon would release approximately 80,000 pages related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Trump did not provide additional details on what the trove of files would include, but he has long promised to release the unredacted documents.

“You got a lot of reading,” he said during a visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the cultural and political institution that he took over nearly five weeks ago, installing himself as chair. “I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.”

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

John F. Kennedy’s assassination, in particular, has long fueled conspiracy theories, including some that Trump himself has indulged. Historians, too, have eagerly awaited the release of the documents, hoping to learn more about the murder of a sitting president.

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

The National Archives and Records Administration has said the government has released 99% of the roughly 320,000 documents that have been reviewed since 1992. But there are still thousands of documents that have remained fully or partially withheld.