JFK Assassination Files: Trump OKs Some, But Not All, Records

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump on Thursday approved the release of some, but not nearly all, of the files in a trove of long-secret documents on the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, bowing to pressure from U.S. intelligence agencies that want to keep some of the documents classified. The National Archive posted the records on its website Thursday night.

White House officials say Trump will explain in a yet-to-be released memo that he had "no choice" but to keep others secret because of national security concerns. The remaining records will remain under review for at least six months. Officials say Trump will impress upon federal agencies that JFK files should stay secret after the six-month review "only in the rarest cases."

The CIA said Thursday evening that none of the 18,000 records not yet released will be withheld in full, and that the redacted parts of those records represent less than 1 percent of the total CIA information in the documents. The redactions hide the names of CIA assets and former and current CIA officers, as well as specific intelligence methods and partnerships that remain viable years after the investigation.

The delay was frustrating to researchers, who were left wondering Thursday afternoon if the government would be in violation of the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, the 1992 law that triggered the release of the files by Oct. 26, 2017.

University of Virginia historian Larry Sabato, an authority on Kennedy, tweeted Thursday that the government has had 25 years, with a known deadline, to prepare the JFK files for release.

"The deadline is here," he tweeted. "Chaos."

In an email to The Associated Press, he said: "Contradictory signals were given all day. Trump's tweets led us to believe that disclosure was ready to go. Everybody outside government was ready to move quickly."

The 1992 law was passed to quiet conspiracy theorists, especially after Oliver Stone’s conspiracy film, “JFK” came out the year prior. In the film, Stone theorized that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have acted alone when he shot Kennedy as the president's motorcade crept along a Dallas street on Nov. 23, 1963. The Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination, found that Oswald acted alone.

The Assassinations Records Review Board, created after Stone's "JFK" film reinvigorated conspiracy theorists, had previously vetted the documents that were expected to be released Thursday.

Among the conspiracy theorists is Trump himself, who claimed during the Republican presidential primary last year that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination plot and had ties to Oswald. Trump hasn't yet apologized for the claim. The source Trump cited was a cover photo on the National Enquirer tabloid. On Thursday, Cruz told ABC News that he's confident the files will vindicate his father and that the notion he was involved is "beyond ludicrous."

The delay in the release of some documents pending the six-month review may refuel some of the conspiracy theories.

"As long as the government is withholding documents like these, it's going to fuel suspicion that there is a smoking gun out there about the Kennedy assassination," Patrick Maney, a presidential historian at Boston College, told the AP.

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that “the long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take tomorrow. So interesting!” But the president is under pressure to keep some of the files — mostly FBI, CIA and Justice Department documents — secret in the interest of national security.

"Clearly there are documents, plural, files, plural, being appealed to him," University of Virginia historian Sabato told the AP. Of the pressure on Trump, Sabato said, "I'm told reliably that it continues and that it has intensified." The historian said documents generated in the 1990s that could contain the names of people who are still alive are of particular concern to those who want certain files held back.

Watch: Expert: JFK Assassination Papers Release Overdue

The full collection of documents scheduled for release Thursday includes more than 3,100 documents — comprising hundreds of thousands of pages — that have never been seen by the public. About 30,000 documents were released previously with redactions. The National Archives is planning to post the files on its website.

The chances are slim that the documents will have any bombshells, according to the judge who led the independent board that reviewed and released thousands of the assassination documents in the 1990s. The files that were withheld in full were those the Assassination Records Review Board deemed "not believed relevant," Judge John Tunheim of Minnesota told the AP. But Tunheim said it's possible the files contain information the board didn't realize was important two decades ago.

JFK experts believe the files will provide insight into the inner workings of the CIA and FBI. But they stress that it will take weeks to mine the documents for potentially new and interesting information.

"As long as the government is withholding documents like these, it's going to fuel suspicion that there is a smoking gun out there about the Kennedy assassination," said Patrick Maney, a presidential historian at Boston College.

Some of the documents are expected to shed some light on a mysterious six-day trip Oswald made to Mexico City right before the assassination, according to JFK scholars. He claimed that he was there to get visas from the Cuban and Soviet Union embassies, but little else is known about what he did during his time there.

The documents also contain some details about the arrangements the U.S. entered into with the Mexican government that allowed it to have close surveillance of those and other embassies, Tunheim said. Other files scholars hope will be released in full include an internal CIA document on its Mexico City station, and a report on Oswald's trip from staffers of the House committee that investigated the assassination.

A large batch of files were released in July and are found on the National Archives website, where the new documents also will be posted. The July release consists of 3,810 documents, including 441 formerly withheld-in-full documents and 3,369 documents formerly released with portions redacted. The documents originate from FBI and CIA series identified by the Assassination Records Review Board as assassination records.

See More: JFK Assassination Files: 5 Things The Documents Show

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In this Nov. 22, 1963 file photo, President John F. Kennedy waves from his car in a motorcade in Dallas. Riding with Kennedy are First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, right, Nellie Connally, second from left, and her husband, Texas Gov. John Connally, far left. President Donald Trump, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017, says he plans to release thousands of never-seen government documents related to President John F. Kennedy's assassination. (AP Photo/Jim Altgens, File)