Oliver Stone calls on lawmakers to reopen Kennedy assassination inquiry: Key moments from JFK hearing

USA Today

01-04-2025

Oliver Stone calls on lawmakers to reopen Kennedy assassination inquiry: Key moments from JFK hearing
The assassination of former President John F. Kennedy took center stage at a House hearing on Tuesday, as four witnesses including filmmaker Oliver Stone testified about the documents recently released on one of the most shocking moments in American history.
So what did the witnesses tell lawmakers?
Testimony from Stone and authors Jefferson Morley and James DiEugenio largely centered around criticism of the CIA and other federal officials in the decades since Kennedy's assassination. The witnesses took issue with multiple federal investigations and long-held findings about Kennedy's death.
It wasn't a new turn for the group of witnesses. For example, Stone's 1991 film "JFK" faced harsh pushback from historians for its suggestions that Kennedy's death was the result of high-level conspiracies.
Multiple lawmakers also argued that federal agencies waiting more than 60 years to release certain information about Kennedy's killing was unacceptable.
Renewed attention on the assassination comes after a flood of documents was released by the National Archives earlier this month about the shooting, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the files to be released.
Nothing in the documents has changed the long-held findings that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in fatally shooting Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 while the then-president rode in a motorcade in Dallas.
Stone called on the committee to reopen the investigation into Kennedy's assassination – and any potential role of the CIA in the case.
'I ask the committee to reopen what the Warren Commission failed miserably to complete,' testified Stone, who directed the 2021 documentary, 'JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.'
'I ask you, in good faith outside all political considerations, to reinvestigate the assassination of this President Kennedy from the scene of the crime to the courtroom,' including the chain of custody on the rifle, the bullets, the fingerprints and 'the autopsy that defies belief,' Stone said.
Also, Stone called on the committee to investigate the 'fingerprints of intelligence all over Lee Harvey Oswald' from 1959 until his death days after the assassination, and especially for 'the CIA, whose muddy footprints are all over this case, a true interrogation.'
– Josh Meyer
Jefferson Morley, author of three books on John F. Kennedy and the CIA, joined Stone in calling on the committee to reopen the investigation because he didn't think accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
Morley told the committee that held the hearing Tuesday, officially known as the House Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets, to probe 'the new revelations emerging from the newest JFK files' that Trump ordered released last month.
Asked if he believed Oswald killed Kennedy, Morley said no.
'He might have fired a gun,' Morley told the committee. 'He was not the intellectual author of the President's death.'
Officials have long held that Oswald acted alone in fatally shooting Kennedy.
–Josh Meyer
Jefferson Morley and several other witnesses emphasized during their testimony concerns that the CIA had Lee Harvey Oswald under close surveillance months before Kennedy's assassination.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also repeatedly asked about criticism of the CIA in the decades following the assassination. Asked by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., what the CIA knew about Oswald and when they knew it, Morley responded 'a whole lot.'
Morley, an author and self-described liberal, said the newly unredacted documents reveal that the CIA had close to 200 pages of information on Oswald before Kennedy was killed.
While an initial review of the papers didn't contain any shocking revelations, the documents do offer a window into the climate of fear at the time surrounding U.S. relations with the Soviet Union shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 nearly led to a nuclear war.
Many of the documents reflected the work by investigators to learn more about assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's time in the Soviet Union and track his movements in the months leading up to Kennedy's assassination in Dallas.
Morley argues that the information draws into question, at the very least, whether the CIA could have prevented Kennedy's assassination.
But criticisms extended beyond the 1960s and into modern day. Morley said he believes there are "important records" that haven't been released yet, and some documents continue to include redactions.
– Karissa Waddick
Several Republican lawmakers questioned whether there were similarities between Kennedy's murder and assassination attempts against Trump.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., argued that little is still known about the men who attempted to take Trump's life and asked panelists whether they believed history was repeating itself.
They were divided. Morely answered with a curt 'no,' while Stone said he did see similarities.
Crane was among a group of lawmakers who, after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, made claims without evidence that the shooting was an attempt by political actors to prevent Trump from returning to the White House.
The FBI launched investigations into both assassination attempts against Trump.
Thomas Crooks shot Trump during a rally in Butler in July 2024 and was killed by a counter-sniper team. A man named Ryan Routh was charged with attempted assassination after he positioned himself with a gun near a Trump-owned golf course in September.
– Karissa Waddick
Republican and Democratic representatives on the task force were united Tuesday in recognizing the importance of releasing long-classified information about Kennedy's assassination – and accusing government agencies like the FBI and CIA of keeping information classified for too long.
Still, Democrats on the committee and at least one witness expressed frustration at the way the Trump administration released the information. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif, said he worried about the 'host of harms' caused, including the release of Social Security numbers and other personal information.
John Davisson, Senior Counsel and Director of Litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center called the rollout 'sloppy.'
When asked about how Congress can keep ensure transparency within executive branch agencies, Davisson urged that the most important thing was providing 'resources to agencies' so that information can be viewed in a 'timely fashion.
The Trump administration earlier this year fired the head archivist at the National Archives, the agency responsible for releasing the JFK files.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., the chair of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, accused prior investigations into Kennedy's assassination of obscuring information and omitting evidence without proof.
'For years, we've relied on our report that while maybe well intentioned was built on the foundation of omissions and half truths,' she said during her opening statement. 'Now with these newly declassified documents, we can confront those discrepancies.
During his response, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif, pushed back on Luna's comments and urged witnesses to focus on 'information, facts' and 'truth' during their testimony.
– Karissa Waddick
Aside from Stone, three other witnesses are testifying in Tuesday's hearing. Author Jefferson Morley, the vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a non-profit that promotes access to historical government documents, is speaking, alongside James DiEugenio, an author who has targeted investigations into Kennedy's assassination. Stone wrote the foreword to DiEugenio's book "The JFK Assassination."
John Davisson, a lawyer at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, will also answer questions from lawmakers.
– Marina Pitofsky
Contributing: Reuters