WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 15 (UPI) — The National Archives and Records Administration released nearly 13,000 documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Thursday, shortly after President Biden issued an executive order authorizing their disclosure.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that 97% of the Kennedy collection is now available to the public. An additional 515 documents have been withheld by the archives in full and 2,545 documents partially withheld.
“Pursuant to my direction, agencies have undertaken a comprehensive effort to review the full set of almost 16,000 records that had previously been released in redacted form and determined that more than 70 percent of those records may now be released in full,” Biden wrote in his executive order.
“This significant disclosure reflects my Administration’s commitment to transparency and will provide the American public with greater insight and understanding of the Government’s investigation into this tragic event in American history.”
Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in his motorcade through Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, at age 46.
An investigation led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and communist activist who had lived in the Soviet Union, acted alone in shooting Kennedy. Many have questioned those findings and insinuated that a broader conspiracy was at work. Oswald was shot and killed in the basement of the Dallas police headquarters two days after Kennedy’s death.
Biden has ordered the acting archivist, Debra Steidel Wall, to conduct a six-month review “of a subset of the remaining redacted records” to ensure they are also disclosed “to the greatest extent possible,” Jean-Pierre said.
According to Politico, White House officials say there are no obvious bombshells in the material expected to be released today; there will be nothing to suggest Oswald was not the gunman in Dealey Plaza or that there was a conspiracy in Kennedy’s death.
