jcarillet/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The National Archives is set to release 2,800 previously classified or redacted records related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy Thursday evening, but will withhold some of the records due to national security concerns, according to a White House official.
The documents related to the investigation into Kennedy’s murder — consisting of files from the CIA, the FBI, the Defense and State departments and other agencies — were scheduled to be released 25 years after the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. The law called for the records to be made available after 25 years based on the approval of the president.
President Donald Trump issued a memo to the heads of executive departments certifying the declassification Thursday, but on a call with reporters Thursday, a White House official explained that federal agencies are being given 180 days to re-review whether certain documents related to national security require continued redaction or withholding.
Trump announced last week that he would permit the records to be made public and tweeted Wednesday to tease their release.
“So interesting!” he wrote. The nearly 3,000 records will be released Thursday, with more expected to be made public following the continued review.
The vast majority of records related to the assassination — roughly 88 percent — have been available since the late 1990s, with an additional 11 percent of the documents released, with redactions, since then.
Thursday’s cache will include some of the remaining files and some of the redacted portions of previously released documents.
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