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JFK files: National Archives releases more assassination records to public

Around 97% of the collection of Kennedy assassination documents are now publicly available following Thursday's release, according to the White House.

WASHINGTON — The National Archives on Thursday posted 12,879 documents with newly released information related to the U.S. government's investigation into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The move comes nearly six decades after Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. 

Earlier in the day, President Biden ordered the release of the documents ahead of a Thursday deadline and is in keeping with a federal statute that calls for the government to release records in its possession concerning the Kennedy assassination.

"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's order stated Thursday. "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." 

One year ago, nearly 1,500 additional documents were released at Biden's order.

There was no immediate indication that the records released Thursday contained new revelations that could radically reshape the public's understanding of the events surrounding the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of Kennedy at the hands of gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.

The National Archives noted Thursday that 515 documents have also been withheld in full and another 2,545 documents have been partially withheld.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that 97% of the collection of documents from Kennedy's assassination are now available following Thursday's release.  

Under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act in 1992, all documents related to the assassination were to be released within 25 years, unless the president says doing so would harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations.

In blocking the release of hundreds of records in 2017 because of concerns from the FBI and the CIA, President Donald Trump cited “potentially irreversible harm." Even so, about 2,800 other records were released at that time.

The Warren Commission in 1964 concluded that Oswald had been the lone gunman, and another congressional probe in 1979 found no evidence to support the theory that the CIA had been involved. But other interpretations have persisted.

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