Thread: Trump backtracks, delays release of JFK assassination records until at least 2021

Trump backtracks, delays release of JFK assassination records until at least 2021

By BRENT D. GRIFFITHS
04/26/2018 11:16 PM EDT

President Donald Trump on Thursday delayed the full release of JFK assassination records until at the latest 2021, siding with the CIA and FBI over national security concerns that the release of the remaining files could spark.

"I agree with the Archivist’s recommendation that the continued withholdings are necessary to protect against identifiable harm to national security, law enforcement, or foreign affairs that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure," Trump wrote in a memorandum released by the White House.

Trump added that need for the continued protection of the documents, "can only grow weaker with the passage of time."

For now though, the decision to grant additional delays means the president has backtracked from his promise last October. At the time, Trump wrote on Twitter "Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened."

The full release of the remaining records related to the JFK assassination was signed into law in 1992 by then-President George H.W. Bush. As POLITICO previously reported, the law ordered the immediate release of thousands of documents and set a 25-year deadline for the release of 3,100 unreleased documents and the full, unredacted versions of 30,000 pages already made public. The 25-year window ran out last year, but the law does give the opportunity for extensions to be granted for concerns, like national security reasons.

Last October, Trump gave the FBI and CIA until Thursday to re-review the remaining files. The White House memo released Thursday said those agencies are also instructed to re-review those redactions over the next three years.

The 1992 law came amid a public outcry after the Oliver Stone's conspiracy-filled "JFK,” which went on to win an Academy Award. Despite multiple government inquires into the assassination, there remains a fervent base of people who feel JFK's death was the result of a conspiracy.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...s-delay-557339

"I agree with the Archivist’s recommendation that the continued withholdings are necessary to protect against identifiable harm to national security, law enforcement, or foreign affairs that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure," Trump wrote in a memorandum released by the White House.

The American People have the right to know who assassinated President Kennedy.

Of course it was a conspiracy. All assassinations are conspiracies because they're planned and premeditated for political purposes. There is no valid reason not to release all of the JFK files. If the Russians assassinated JFK, we need to know that. If the Cubans assassinated JFK, we need to know that. If the Dallas Police Department assassinated JFK, we need to know that.