The largest batch of documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy was released Thursday morning.
More than 19,000 files related the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 were posted online by the National Archives.
Thursday’s document release is the final one in accordance with President Donald Trump’s direction in October, which allowed agencies to re-review withheld documents before releasing them to the public.
The first batch of documents was made public on Oct. 26, 2017, with the most recent before Thursday’s release being on Dec. 15, 2017. In all, nearly 50,000 documents pertaining to the assassination of Kennedy have been released since October.
Most of the collection of documents, which has about 5 million pages, are public, but some of the documents were withheld until recently to protect intelligence sources, intelligence gathering methods and national security.
Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas during a processional by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Files related the JFK assassination investigation revealed that rumors of a link between Oswald and the CIA were “unfounded” and that the FBI was monitoring a growing political movement by Latinos. Documents also revealed that President Lyndon B. Johnson believed Kennedy ordered the assassination of the South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and that Kennedy was murdered in retaliation.
Another file released since Trump’s direction revealed how a British newspaper received a phone call about “big news” in the U.S. 25 minutes before Kennedy’s assassination.
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Source : Nbcnewyork
