US President Donald Trump released documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday, fulfilling his campaign promise to increase transparency about the event in Texas.
The first batch of electronic documents appeared on the National Archives website, with more than 80,000 expected to be made available following hours of review by Justice Department lawyers.
The documents, which included PDFs of memos, featured a “secret” memo detailing a 1964 interview with Lee Wigren, a CIA employee, discussing inconsistencies in the materials provided to the Warren Commission by the State Department and CIA regarding Soviet-American marriages.
Some documents referred to conspiracy theories suggesting that Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, left the Soviet Union in 1962 with the intention to kill the president. Others downplayed Oswald’s Soviet ties, citing a 1991 report from an American professor who had discussed Oswald with a KGB official, who concluded that Oswald was not a KGB agent.
Department of Defense documents from 1963 addressed the Cold War and US efforts in Latin America, including attempts to curb Fidel Castro’s support of communist forces. One document noted that Castro was unlikely to provoke a war with the US but might increase his support for subversive groups in Latin America.
Another document released detailed “Operation Mongoose,” a covert CIA operation authorized by Kennedy in 1961 to undermine Castro’s regime.
Trump’s order, issued shortly after his inauguration, led to the discovery of thousands of additional documents, prompting a review by the Justice Department’s lawyers.
“President Trump is ushering in a new era of maximum transparency,” remarked Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on X.
While the new documents are unlikely to change the official account that Oswald acted alone, experts caution that the public’s expectations should be tempered. Larry Sabato, a political expert, noted that many of the released materials might simply be previously published documents with minor redactions.
Trump has also pledged to release documents related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, both of whom were killed in 1968, but has given more time for planning these releases.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a son of Robert Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy, has claimed that the CIA was involved in his uncle’s death, a statement the agency denies. He also believes his father was killed by multiple gunmen, which contradicts official reports.
Trump remarked, “People have been waiting for decades for this. It’s going to be very interesting.”
