US releases final trove of secret Kennedy assassination files
The US National Archives on Tuesday released the final batch of files related to the assassination of president John F. Kennedy -- a case that still fuels conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death.
The move follows an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January directing the unredacted release of the remaining files related to the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother, former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
"In accordance with President Donald Trump's directive... all records previously withheld for classification that are part of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection are released," the Archives said in a statement on its website Tuesday evening.
The National Archives has released millions of pages of records over the past decades relating to the assassination of then-president Kennedy in November 1963, but thousands of documents had been held back at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing national security concerns.
The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president determined that it was carried out by a former Marine sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.
But that formal conclusion has done little to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind Kennedy's murder in Dallas, Texas, and the slow release of the government files has added fuel to various conspiracy theories.
Kennedy scholars have said the documents that were still held by the archives were unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the 35th US president.
Oswald was shot by a strip club owner, Jack Ruby, on November 24, 1963 -- two days after the Kennedy assassination -- while being moved to a county jail.
Many of the records already released were raw intelligence, including scores of reports from FBI agents following up leads that led nowhere.
Much of what they contain was also previously known, such as that the communist-obsessed CIA cooked up several outlandish plots to murder Cuba's Fidel Castro.
Oswald defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 but returned to the United States in 1962.
Hundreds of books and movies such as the 1991 Oliver Stone film "JFK" have fueled the conspiracy industry, pointing the finger at Cold War rivals the Soviet Union or Cuba, the Mafia and even Kennedy's vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
The release of the documents follows an October 26, 1992 act of Congress which required that the unredacted assassination records held in the National Archives be released in full 25 years later.
cl/md/dw
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
7 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Doechii's closing WorldPride set ended a tense weekend on a high note
Nightclubs. Karaoke spots. House party living rooms. Wedding reception halls. All fine places to dance your life away. But nothing beats the streets. Without ceilings or walls to keep the music from flying off into oblivion, we keep our dancing shoes pressed to the pavement, catching the rhythm with our bodies, circulating it among an assembly of strangers like some game of metaphysical pinball. Or at least that's what seemed to be happening smack in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue NW on Sunday evening as Doechii, the lightning-mouthed Florida rap star, delivered a galvanizing closing set at this year's WorldPride celebration in Washington — a boisterous affirmation of the LGBTQ+ community's perseverance and purpose that might have felt overwhelming had it not been such electric fun. This was a happy conclusion to a difficult week. WorldPride is the largest Pride Month celebration on the planet, but this year, its proximity to President Donald Trump's White House charged the festivities with tensions and safety concerns. As the Trump administration continues to erode transgender rights and dissolve diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, fearful corporate sponsors withheld their cash. On a day's notice, Shakira canceled her opening-night concert at Nationals Park, citing an insurmountable production glitch. Over the weekend, federal authorities attempted to fence off Dupont Circle Park, the center of the city's historic LGBTQ neighborhood, but the park ultimately stayed open. At least on Sunday night, without anxiety or ambiguity, Pennsylvania Avenue belonged to the people — many of them wearing colorful T-shirts adorned with even more colorful phrases that made their opposition to oppression abundantly clear. 'WorldPride 2025 is an act of resistance,' organizer Rahul Upadhyay said onstage before Doechii's set. 'This is what hope looks like. This is what family looks like.' Once Doechii appeared — frontlit in green, backlit in pink, braids swinging down to her heels — it also looked like a party. Still floating on the runaway success of her zesty 2024 album 'Alligator Bites Never Heal,' her performance landed like hard evidence of rap music's synchronizing power. When she launched into her signature tale of a stressed-out crash out, 'Denial Is a River,' fans two blocks deep in the crowd were rattling off Doechii's zigzag lyrics as if reciting a shouted prayer — 'Whoopsie! Made an oopsie! One-hundred-thousand dollar 'oops' made me loopy!' — all the way down to the panicked breathing of the song's finale. If you'd ever hoped to feel a sense of community by standing in a throng of many-thousands, pretending to hyperventilate in unified glee, here you were. 'Easy, breezy, beautiful, erratic,' Doechii rapped by way of self-description over the jazzy boom-bap of 'Boiled Peanuts,' positing herself as a stylistic heir to Missy Elliott, eager to express her messy multitudes with airlocked precision. Legible and danceable, her intentionality felt so well-suited for a celebration like this. In life writ large — which includes music-making, party-throwing, meal-making, getting dressed, sports, sex, watching television and more — spontaneity is all well and good, but sometimes being deliberate is a necessity. A party on this grand of a scale with this depth of purpose doesn't tend to erupt in the streets on a whim. As with a Doechii song, pleasure requires preparation. As for the gratitude, it flowed both ways. 'I've never felt so much love and peace from a community in my entire life,' Doechii told the crowd, catching her breath between rhyming sprints. The crowd roared. The music thundered. The people moved. Pennsylvania Avenue isn't the street the president lives on. It's a dance floor.
Fox News
9 minutes ago
- Fox News
Dozens of anti-ICE rioters arrested in LA as Trump sends in National Guard to quell violence
Dozens of protesters have been arrested following a weekend of violence across Los Angeles as tensions hit a boiling point over immigration raids throughout the city. On Sunday, law enforcement officials from multiple agencies arrested 41 protesters as anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demonstrations spiraled out of control. Of the nearly four-dozen arrests, 21 were made by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), 19 by California Highway Patrol and one by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. The charges include failure to disperse, assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, looting and arson, an LAPD spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Of the most violent alleged offenses, one individual was arrested for attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail, Fox News Digital has learned. On Saturday, the LAPD arrested 10 individuals for failing to disperse. The agency did not make any arrests Friday, according to officials. The California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. The arrests come as the sanctuary city is bracing for the possibility of more violence as anti-ICE protesters clash with local, state and federal law enforcement. The protests kicked off on Friday after federal agents swept through the city's garment district in search of undocumented immigrants, sparking outrage throughout the community. In response to the unrest, President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops to the area, with 300 troops arriving over the weekend. "We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California," Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday morning. "If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated." Tensions escalated on the third day of protests as agitators moved throughout the city, setting self-driving cars on fire and blocking off major highways. National Guard troops took to the streets Sunday morning to guard the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. As the protesters approached the guard members, additional uniformed officers began shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street. The LAPD began firing off rounds of crowd-control munitions in an effort to disperse the protesters, who then advanced onto the 101 Freeway and proceeded to block traffic until state police cleared the roadway by late afternoon. Additionally, demonstrators set at least four self-driving electric vehicles on fire, resulting in large explosions being heard throughout the chaos along with intermittent flash bangs going off periodically. By Sunday night, local police had issued an unlawful assembly order, effectively shutting down the area throughout downtown Los Angeles. "Demonstrators have marched to the LA Live area and are blocking all lanes of traffic on Figueroa and 11th St," the LAPD posted to X. "An UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY has been declared for the Downtown Los Angeles area. You are to leave the area immediately." Trump's move to send in the U.S. military has drawn criticism from local and national politicians, with Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom renouncing the move while vowing to sue the administration. "This is about authoritarian tendencies," Newsom said in a statement. "This is about command and control. This is about power. This is about ego. This is a consistent pattern. This guy has abandoned the core principles of this great democracy. He's threatening to go after judges he disagrees with, cut off funding to institutions of higher learning, he's rewriting history and censoring historical facts." Newsom arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday evening to meet with state officials and oversee the response to the anti-ICE demonstrations. ICE said in a Saturday post on X that the agency had arrested 118 illegal immigrants throughout Los Angeles, including five alleged gang members. "Why do Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass care more about violent murderers and sex offenders than they do about protecting their own citizens?" Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for Homeland Security's public affairs, said in a statement. "These rioters in Los Angeles are fighting to keep rapists, murderers, and other violent criminals loose on Los Angeles streets. Instead of rioting, they should be thanking ICE officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer." Representatives for Bass' administration did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Hamilton Spectator
10 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
AP PHOTOS: Trump's new travel ban takes effect, and some protest
President Donald Trump's ban on travel to the United States took effect Monday. Demonstrators outside Los Angeles International Airport held signs protesting the ban affecting citizens from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries. At Miami International Airport, passengers moved steadily through an area for international arrivals. Tensions are escalating over the Trump administration's campaign of immigration enforcement. The new ban applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don't hold a valid visa. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
