Trump Releases Secret JFK Files After Decades of Mystery

President Donald Trump has followed through on a promise made on his first day back in office, releasing thousands of previously classified documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While many of the records had already been made public with redactions, this latest release includes full, unredacted versions of over a thousand files, offering a deeper look at the Cold War, covert CIA operations, and what U.S. agencies really knew about Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination. So, what's new, and how are experts and the public reacting? Here's what we know.

No Smoking Gun, but Some Eye-Opening Details

So far, nothing in the newly released documents has changed the official story that Oswald acted alone. But there are some new insights that shine a light on how closely he was being watched, which raises questions about why agencies didn't act sooner.

One document from 1991 contains a report about Oswald's time in the Soviet Union. A KGB official named Slava Nikonov reviewed five thick files on Oswald to determine if he had ever been a Soviet agent. "Nikonov is now confident that Oswald was at no time an agent controlled by the KGB," as reported by USA TODAY.

Nikonov also noted that Oswald was difficult to control and "had a stormy relationship with his Soviet wife, who rode him incessantly," as reported by USA TODAY. In addition, the files "reflected that Oswald was a poor shot when he tried target firing in the USSR."

President Kennedy and motorcade minutes before his assassination in Dallas, 1963. Photo courtesy of Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News. Public domain.

Another significant detail is Oswald's trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination. "There's reason to believe he talked openly about killing Kennedy in Mexico City and that people overheard him say that," Historian Philip Shenon said, as reported by Time Magazine.

CIA and FBI Knew More Than They Let On

The files also reveal that the CIA and FBI had Oswald under surveillance before Kennedy's assassination but didn't act on key details. A previously redacted memo from 1975 downplayed what the CIA knew about Oswald's time in Mexico. According to Time Magazine, the agency admitted it had recorded three phone calls between Oswald and a Soviet embassy guard, but claimed only the last call confirmed Oswald's identity.

Jefferson Morley, vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, said the newly unredacted records "shed new light on JFK's mistrust of the CIA, the Castro assassination plots, the surveillance of Oswald in Mexico City, and CIA propaganda operations involving Oswald," as quoted by USA TODAY.

Mixed Reactions From Historians and the Public

While the release has been widely praised by transparency advocates, some experts are still skeptical about how much new information has actually come to light.

"I haven't seen any big blockbusters that rewrite the essential history of the assassination," Time Magazine quoted Shenon as saying. "But it is very early."

Morley called the release "an encouraging start," stating, "We now have complete versions of approximately a third of the redacted JFK documents held by the National Archives," per USA TODAY. He added, "Seven of 10 JFK files held by the Archives and sought by JFK researchers are now in the public record."

Still, Morley warned that the release does not include most of the promised files, and none of more than 500 IRS records or 2,400 recently discovered FBI files, according to USA TODAY.

Not everyone appreciated the surprise release. "A total surprise, and not shocker !!" JFK's grandson Jack Schlossberg wrote in a social media post, as reported by Time Magazine, criticizing the lack of communication with the Kennedy family.

A Long-Awaited Moment for the Public

Trump announced the document release during a visit to the Kennedy Center, where he now serves as board chairman. "People have been waiting for decades for this," he said, according to USA Today. "We have a tremendous amount of paper. You've got a lot of reading. I don't believe we're going to redact anything."

Donald Trump speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0.

The move is part of what Trump has described as a push for "maximum transparency" in the intelligence community, as reported by USA TODAY.

What's Next?

There are still thousands of files yet to be released or digitized. Researchers continue to comb through the current batch in search of new revelations. While the files haven't changed the conclusion that Oswald acted alone, they raise more questions about how much the government knew, and why some details were hidden for so long.

As Jefferson Morley put it, "This is the most positive news on the declassification of JFK files since the 1990s," according to USA TODAY.

References: Trump releases classified JFK files on assassination. Here's what they say. | What Was—and Wasn't—Revealed in the Newly Declassified JFK Files