WASHINGTON—Some newly released files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are missing key pieces of information, and others are completely absent from the records, The Epoch Times discovered while reviewing thousands of documents in person at the National Archives.
Approximately 80,000 documents were released on March 19 by President Donald Trump pursuant to an executive order he signed in January. Redactions and exemptions, however, leave the disclosure incomplete.
The White House referred questions related to the files to the National Archives and Records Administration, whose officials said disclosing all documents is a top priority.
“In keeping with the spirit of President Donald Trump’s commitment to maximum transparency and the March 18, 2025, release of files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the National Archives has begun proactively reviewing [records] for maximum release,” a spokesperson for the archives administration told The Epoch Times by email on March 25.
With some historians looking for a smoking gun in the trove of papers, it’s the redactions that are raising the most questions, revealing a legacy of secrecy more than a half-century in the making.
The Epoch Times found boxes in the National Archives that contain thousands of still-redacted documents, including many that are stamped “sanitized,” a term used by intelligence agencies to describe pre-release deletions, according to archivists.
Files available for review at the archives are those not yet digitized or available online.
Documents seen in the locked archive stacks reveal significant portions of pages concealed by thick black marker, blank spaces eliminating text, and in at least one instance, rows of tape and a piece of paper used to hide sections of files.
“When those are found ... archivists are alerting the file’s originating agency ... and will hopefully be in a position to provide clean copies to researchers,” the archive spokesperson said.
Redacted items cover a wide range of topics, including thousands of pages contained in the work files of Russell Holmes, archivist for the CIA and JFK assassination historian.
Some documents, although they’ve been released, are practically illegible because of the quality of the scans or the source material.
Legible, unredacted records discovered by The Epoch Times include never-before-released testimony and thousands of records related to intelligence agency operations, surveillance, and investigations.
Key documents uncovered include the long sought-after, unredacted 72-page transcript of counterintelligence spy chief James Angleton’s statements to the Senate’s Church Committee regarding intelligence agency methods.
Records Excluded
Files categorized in certain series, including those from the Assassination Records Review Board—which between 1994 and 1998 investigated the killings of Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy and led efforts to identify and declassify the files—are exempt from Trump’s order, an archives spokesperson told The Epoch Times.The exclusion of papers related to the board’s investigation leaves missing portions of internal correspondence, reports, and interviews—including 19 instances of redactions of Angleton’s testimony to the group in 1978—and other potentially insightful details.
Some documents were kept out of the archives because the review board decided they were “not believed relevant,” according to postponement messages included on cover sheets accompanying the files.
Other files that are partially redacted include references to intelligence agencies’ surveillance of Lee Harvey Oswald before Kennedy’s assassination.
According to archivists, some records that pertain to the assassination are exempt from disclosure because they are not contained in the official JFK collection, which is specifically named in Trump’s directive.
However, after The Epoch Times requested clarification from the White House about the categorization discrepancy, the administration reached out to the archives on March 25, and now some of the review board’s files are scheduled for release.
Documents Destroyed
Also revealed in the newly released files are statements from the CIA and the FBI describing an untold number of documents that were intentionally destroyed.The destruction carried out by government agencies focused on certain aspects of the investigation, including the destruction of some files pertaining to Oswald’s activities in the years before the incident, inter-agency communications, and the actions and statements of key officials.
Some papers related to Angleton are among those deleted entirely, according to CIA memos, which describe mail records and pages of documents that were destroyed.
With the erasure of parts of the historical record, opportunities are lost for historians to put together the puzzle of intelligence agencies’ activities before and after the president was shot.
Ever since Kennedy was killed in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, speculation has persisted about the events of the day, who was involved, and what was known beforehand.
Adding to the complexity of full transparency is the process by which documents are redacted.
Some papers in the JFK collection include omissions, granted by a succession of presidents beginning with Lyndon Johnson or by government agencies such as the CIA and FBI, executed by archivists to comply with national security or privacy laws.
Records included in the collection are either now disclosed or under review awaiting replacement of unredacted versions and digitization following Trump’s order. It is unclear how many documents are not yet released in full, with approximately 17,000 files not digitized.
Declassification Dilemmas
Documents related to the assassination were first ordered released by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which directed archivists to assemble the records in a single collection, with the aim of declassifying the files in full within 25 years of its passage.Lawmakers passed the act shortly after filmmaker Oliver Stone released the movie “JFK,” which questioned the official narrative proposed by the Warren Commission—that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone gunman solely responsible for the killing—and public pressure mounted for the government to reveal the files.
The process, however, was marred by a series of delays and exceptions, particularly concerning national security and intelligence gathering methods.
Although the 1992 law mandated full disclosure by Oct. 26, 2017, there were exceptions to avoid “identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations“ if the identifiable harm was ”of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”
Postponement was also granted if documents revealed current intelligence gathering methods or confidential informants’ names or identities and could pose a “substantial risk of harm to that person” or would constitute a “substantial invasion of personal privacy.”
During his first term in office, Trump ordered the release of documents in line with the 1992 law, but he accepted recommendations from intelligence officials at the time to withhold certain files because of national security concerns.
President Joe Biden later unveiled some files while extending delays and allowing for the redaction of certain documents.
After taking office for a second time, Trump directed his administration to disclose all assassination-related records.
The CIA did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by publication time.
