President John F. Kennedy
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More never-before-seen JFK assassination files set to be released by US Gov

A new trove of never-before-seen documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is set to be released on Thursday by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) after a lengthy battle.

Lawsuit and public outcry over government withholding JFK assassination files, after limited release a year ago

A year ago today, on December 15, 2021, the National Archives released nearly 1500 previously classified documents that were collected as part of the government review into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, CNN reported.

Researchers were underwhelmed by the release, the vast majority of which released as new, appeared to be duplicates of previously released documents, and with only a few redacted words finally revealed. What was revealed was often the name of the CIA case officer or the location of an overseas agency station that investigators had already pieced together. Some of the documents had no changes whatsoever.

The 2021 release still left over 16,000 documents either partially redacted or withheld entirely. President Joe Biden issued an order in October 2021 to release more documents in December 2022.

Even though Congress mandated the release of the documents, JFK researchers argued that the CIA, FBI, and other national security agencies were continually stonewalling efforts to release all of the documents.

Attorney sues Biden and National Archives to release remaining JFK documents

In October 2022, New York Attorney Larry Schnapf filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden and the National Archives that called for the release of all classified information related to JFK, which totaled around 16,000 documents, Newsy reported.

A poll taken early this month showed that 70% of voters want President Joe Biden to release the remaining 16,000 John F. Kennedy assassination records, Axios reported. Only 10% want to see the release delayed.

National Archives to release more JFK records on December 15 – but how many?

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is expected to release an additional trove of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Thursday, December 15, 2022. But the question remains as to how many of the reported 16,000 documents will be released.

Under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act in 1992, the government was required to release all documents related to the assassination by October 2017 unless doing so would harm national security or intelligence sources, CBS reported.

Last year, President Joe Biden only authorized the release of roughly 1,500 documents. In the previous administration, former president Donald Trump released thousands of documents over the course of his presidency but still withheld many on national security grounds.

President Biden is expected to order the National Archives to release once-classified information from about 8,000 documents related to the assassination, Politico reported. Among these documents, many are expected to be drawn from the so-called 201 ‘personality’ file the CIA maintained on Oswald before and after Kennedy’s murder.