On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s administration declassified thousands of documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in 1963, whose death promoted at least 60 years of conspiracy theory.
Here’s what we know so far:
How many documents have been released?
On Tuesday evening, 2,182 PDF documents consisting of approximately 63,400 pages were uploaded to the US National Archives and the Records Bureau’s websites. The document was released in two rounds a few hours apart.
According to National Archives, “all records previously withheld for classification” have been released, and can be accessed either online or in person. Many of the documents were handwritten or typewritten.
Trump issued an executive order on January 23rd, announcing documents relating to JFK’s death and the secret of his younger brother, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) and civil rights activist Martin Luther King (MLK).
On Monday, Trump announced at the Kennedy Center that the documents will be released the following day. It was expected that at least 80,000 pages would be released.
It may take several months for historians and conspiracy theorists to look into the new documents and understand what they will reveal.
When was JFK assassinated?
JFK, a Democrat, was President of the United States from January 1961 until November 22, 1963. He was killed at the age of 46.
He was shot dead while driving a car through Dallas, Texas, along with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Gov. John Connally and Connally’s wife Nelly Connally. The attack also injured Governor Connally.
After JFK’s death, his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, was sworn in as president. Johnson ordered an investigation under Secretary Earl Warren to assassinate him. The Warren Committee concluded that former Marine communist activist Lee Harvey Oswald, 24, was responsible for the murder.
Why is there a conspiracy in JFK’s death?
The Warren Committee concluded that Oswald is acting alone without being influenced by other domestic or foreign actors.
However, Kennedy’s murder was at the height of the Cold War and has always been burning speculation. A November 2023 Gallup poll shows that 60 years after the assassination, two-thirds of Americans believe Oswald acted with his accomplice. The fact that several documents related to the assassination have been made public for decades further doubt the conclusion of the investigation.
“I’m just Patsy!” Oswald said in a video he recorded at Dallas Police Headquarters after his arrest. Many skeptics in the official story interpret this as Oswald, who says he is merely a scapegoat.
Two days after JFK’s death, Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby, the owner of the Dallas Nightclub, while being taken from police headquarters to the county jail. There was no trial, which further encouraged the conspiracy. And the suggestion that Oswald was killed before revealing the identity of the others he works for.
The Warren Committee concluded that one 6.5mm bullet killed JFK and injured Governor Connally. Many people find it incredible that one bullet has passed through the bodies of two adult men.
In the horrifying footage of the assassination, shot by clothing maker Abraham Zapruder, the second shot appears to have hit JFK’s skull. The frames for this footage were not released for years until ABC News aired in 1975.
Have all the Kennedy Files been released?
No, but most of them have.
Before Tuesday’s release, there were nearly 3,500 compiled documents using the archives, according to Vice President Jefferson Morley, vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository of files related to the assassination. A little over 2,000 people were released on Tuesday.
However, last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it had discovered 2,400 new records regarding the assassination of JFK. Morley said the Trove, the file released Tuesday, does not contain any of the documents that were recently discovered.
In 2017, during Trump’s first term, he released 2,800 files on JFK’s death, but under pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI, he did not release hundreds of other files pending review. In 2023, former President Joe Biden released another 17,000 documents.