President Donald Trump has ordered the declassification of all files related to the 1963 assassination of then-president John F. Kennedy - and FBI officials say they have found thousands more pages of docs ready for the public.
But should the world expect much from them?
The answer is murky, at best.
That still didn’t stop Trump from signing an executive order directing the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to present a plan for the “full and complete release of records” related to the assassination by February 7. The executive order also calls for similar disclosure of documents related to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by next month.
The president promised to declassify all documents related to Kennedy’s assassination while on the campaign trail after he delayed doing so in his first term.
Here’s what we know about the files — and what to expect from them:
What are the JFK files?
In the 1990s, the federal government stored all files related to Kennedy’s assassination in a single collection at the National Archives and Records Administration. Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed Kennedy as he rode through Dallas in his motorcade on November 22, 1963. Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby two days later as he was being transferred to a county jail.
All documents were set to be declassified in 2017 — during what became Trump’s first term.
While Trump said he would declassify all documents in 2017, he still barred some from release due to national security concerns, the Associated Press reported. Former president Joe Biden went on to release another chunk of documents in 2022, but several remain classified.
Trump regretted withhold the doc for years, Axios reported, motivating him to work towards declassification during his second term.
Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, told the Associated Press in November there are likely about 3,000 to 4,000 documents that haven’t been fully released.
The FBI announced Tuesday that investigators discovered some 2,400 new documents that were “previously unrecognized as related to the JFK assassination case file” as they carried out Trump’s executive order.
It’s unclear what the records contain. The FBI now says it is working to transfer the documents to the National Archives and Records Administration to be included in the declassification process.
These newly discovered files could be relevant to a 2022 lawsuit filed by the Mary Ferrell Foundation against the Biden administration, which alleges the federal government had more documents than it was letting on related to the assassination, Axios reported.
The lawsuit claims these hidden files include recordings of crime boss Carlos Marcello, who claimed he was involved in the assassination, along with the CIA files of Officer George Joannides, Axios reports. The officer worked on a CIA-funded exile group in New Orleans that Oswald interacted with in the weeks leading up to the shooting.
What are the most common conspiracies involved in the 1963 killing?
The most prevalent conspiracy theory about the assassination is that Oswald, a former marine and communist activist who spent time in the Soviet Union, didn’t act alone.
While a probe carried out by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded Oswald was the sole person involved, academics and historians have criticized his investigation, CBS News reported.
In the wake of the Watergate scandal, the House established a Select Committee on Assassinations to reinvestigate the assassination in 1976, The Washington Post noted. The committee yet again determined Oswald acted alone, but noted there was “probably” a conspiracy involving a second gunman on the “grassy knoll” overlooking the road Kennedy’s motorcade was driving on, according to the Post.
While the second gunman theory has since been discredited, it has continued to fuel theories that Oswald had a partner.
Another popular theory centers around “Umbrella Man,” a person in the crowd seen holding a black umbrella despite it being a sunny day. Theorists have speculated man used the umbrella to shoot a dart into Kennedy’s neck, immobilizing him and allowing Oswald to land the deadly shot.
But that 1976 House committee found Umbrella Man: Louie Steven Witt. During a hearing, Witt revealed the umbrella had absolutely no dart- or bullet-firing mechanisms — and that he brought it to watch Kennedy’s motorcade to heckle the then-president, the Post reports.
Witt said it was a “bad joke” referencing the black umbrella carried by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, the Post reports, who argued in favor of appeasing some of Adolf Hitler’s demands during World War II and was supported by the then-president’s father Joseph Kennedy.
Why are some so interested in the JFK files?
Stephen Fagin, curator of a museum about the assassination in Dallas, told the Associated Press many people are interested because they don’t feel the current answers are adequate.
“People want to make sense of this and they want to find the solution that fits the crime,” Fagin said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has previously called for full disclosure. The cabinet nominee, who is the nephew of President Kennedy and the son of Senator Kennedy, also believes both their assassinations were part of a wider conspiracy, Axios reported.
The already-released files have also helped historians better understand the CIA’s operations during the Cold War, national security attorney Mark Zaid told the Associated Press.
Who is leading the current investigation into the Kennedy assassination?
Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, is leading a Congressional task force aimed at exposing “federal secrets,” which will re-investigate Kennedy’s assassination following Trump’s declassification order.
Luna doesn’t believe Oswald acted alone.
“Based on what I’ve been seeing so far, the initial hearing that was actually held here in Congress was actually faulty in the single-bullet theory,” Luna told reporters Tuesday.
“There’s been conflicting evidence, and I think that even the FBI at the time reported some anomalies in the initial autopsy at Bethesda, Maryland,” she added.
Her task force will also investigate the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
What to expect in the release?
Now, historians are hopeful to see even more documents that enhance their understanding of the time period — but most aren’t expecting any big revelations on the assassination.
“If you have been following it, as I have and others have, you sort of are zeroed in on the pages you think might provide some additional information for history,” Posner told the AP in November.
“Anybody waiting for a smoking gun that’s going to turn this case upside down will be sorely disappointed,” Posner added.
But, after the FBI revealed the 2,400 new documents this week, new questions are being raised.
“If they are really new assassination documents, then it raises a whole bunch of questions about how they were missed for all of these years,” Posner told the Associated Press this week.
