The National Archives and Records Administration has just released 10,744 new JFK assassination files from the FBI.
From a NARA press release:
All of the documents released today are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Of the documents released today, 8,336 documents are released in their entirety and 2,408 are released with limited redactions. Also, this is the first release for 144 of the documents. Released records are available for download.
The versions released today were processed by the FBI and, in accordance with the President’s guidance, are being posted expeditiously in order to make the documents available to the public, even before the March deadline established by the President on Oct. 26, 2017. Any information that has been redacted from the records in this public release remains subject to further review by the FBI and the National Archives in accordance with the President’s direction.
The National Archives released 13,213 documents on Nov. 9, 676 documents on Nov. 3, 2,891 documents on Oct. 26, and 3,810 records on July 24.
In accord with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, all previously classified documents related to the assassination were set to be released on October 26, 2017. This included documents that were never seen before, as well as documents that were released but with redactions. However, when the 26th came, that didn’t happen.
President Trump, at the urging of various executive agencies, decided to delay full release of the documents, giving those agencies a six-month “re-review” deadline in order to assess whether further material can be unredacted.
NARA had two releases on November 3 and 9 — mostly CIA files — that it said both the agencies and NARA had not actually re-reviewed yet. So theoretically there could be a re-release of those documents, as well as the approximately 2,400 partially-redacted FBI files from today, with further unredacted material.
WhoWhatWhy is continuing to comb through these vast troves of documents with a team of document reviewers and JFK assassination experts. Stay tuned as we bring you more news and analysis.
Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from JFK (National Archives), National Archives building (National Archives) and National Archives Logo (National Archives / Wikimedia).
