President Trump is anticipated to block the release of some of the classified files related to former President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, which are to be made public by next Thursday. Unless Trump intervenes, the National Archives has until Oct. 26 to release nearly 3,100 documents pertaining to Kennedy's assassination in 1963. The date was established by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which was signed into law by former President George H.W. Bush in an attempt to minimize conspiracy theories about Kennedy's death.
Trump administration officials are concerned releasing classified documents from the 1990s would jeopardize national security by providing information on recent American intelligence and law enforcement operations, Politico Magazine reported Friday.
A partial release of some of the documents is possible, but some of the information would be blacked out.
White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters told Politico Magazine that the Trump administration was trying "to ensure that the maximum amount of data can be released to the public."
A bipartisan group lawmakers led by Sen. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., who introduced companion resolutions, pressed Trump earlier this month to allow full public disclosure of the documents.
"Transparency in government is critical not only to ensuring accountability; it's also essential to understanding our nation's history," Grassley said in a statement. "The assassination of President Kennedy occurred at a pivotal time for our nation, and nearly 54 years later, we are still learning the details of how our government responded and what it may have known beforehand. Americans deserve a full picture of what happened that fateful day in November 1963. Shining a light on never-before-seen government records is essential to filling in these blank spaces in our history."
The documents primarily consist of CIA and FBI documents.
