Latest news with #diGenova
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Here's What Trump Really Revealed by Releasing JFK Files
The National Archives released thousands of declassified documents this week relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy—but in its effort to make the unredacted trove public, it published the Social Security numbers of over 200 former congressional staffers. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that buried within the 60,000 pages of mostly unredacted documents were the Social Security numbers of more than 100 staff members of the Senate Church Committee, and more than 100 staff members of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. The names of those who were doxxed include several high-profile figures, including a former assistant secretary of state, a former U.S. ambassador, and several prominent figures in the intelligence and legal fields. The Senate Church Committee was formed in 1975 to study the intelligence abuses of federal agencies, and the Committee on Assassinations investigated Kennedy's death. Joseph diGenova, a former Trump campaign lawyer who previously investigated intelligence abuses in the 1970s, was not aware that his private information was included within the JFK files until the Post reached out to him. He called the move 'absolutely outrageous,' 'sloppy,' and 'unprofessional.' 'It makes sense that my name is in there,' diGenova said. 'But the other sensitive stuff—it's like a first-grade, elementary-level rule of security to redact things like that.' 'It not only means identity theft, but I've had threats against me,' diGenova added. One former Senate staffer, who spoke with the Post under the condition of anonymity, directed their ire at the Trump administration, now that they had become a target for identity theft and fraud. 'It just shows the danger of how this administration is handling these things with no thought of who gets damaged in the process,' they said. Following up on his executive order from January, Trump had promised Monday that all the files related to the assassination would be made public by Tuesday afternoon—setting off a scramble at the Department of Justice to make it happen as quickly as possible. Attorneys in the DOJ's National Security Division were called to urgently provide a second set of eyes to review the documents for release, even though they had already received an initial review by the FBI. Mary Ellen Callahan, former chief privacy officer at the Department of Homeland Security, told the Post that the mass publication of sensitive information was 'absolutely' a violation of the 1974 Privacy Act, which requires agencies to be careful in their handling of sensitive information. 'Social Security is literally the keys to the kingdom to everybody,' said Callahan.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Lawyer Livid as JFK Files Leak His Social Security Number: ‘Absolutely Outrageous'
Donald Trump's former campaign lawyer is furious after his personal information and social security number were made public as part of this week's release of unredacted JFK assassination files. 'It's absolutely outrageous. It's sloppy, unprofessional,' Joseph diGenova, a long-time Trump supporter who formerly served as the president's lawyer on the campaign trail, told The Washington Post. 'It not only means identity theft, but I've had threats against me,' diGenova said. 'In the past, I've had to report real threats against me to the FBI. There are dangerous nuts out there.' More than 60,000 documents related to the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy were released by the Trump administration on Tuesday, the vast majority of which were unredacted. Included in the document dump were the social security numbers of around 200 former congressional staffers and others, according to the Post, including 100 members of the Senate Church Committee established in 1975 to investigate abuses of authority by American intelligence services such as the CIA and FBI. Many of the individuals mentioned in the documents are still alive, including 80-year-old diGenova, who served on the committee in the 1970s. 'It makes sense that my name is in there,' he told the Post, 'but the other sensitive stuff — it's like a first-grade, elementary-level rule of security to redact things like that.' Speaking of his prior work for the committee, diGenova, who regularly appears on cable news to defend the president, added: 'It was fascinating work. One of the lawyers on our team located the girlfriend of a mafia guy who was supposedly seeing JFK at the same time. 'He found her in Nevada or Arizona and got chased away by her husband. Other work we did was looking into assassination plots against Castro and people who were assets of the CIA. Incredible stuff.' Other staffers said they were furious about now having to worry about identity theft and financial fraud after being included in the document dump. Some of those interviewed by the Post said they had been forced to freeze their credit cards and bank accounts after being doxxed by the files, while another said they were now looking into the possibility of suing the National Archives. 'It seems like the damage is done, but clearly we have to talk to some lawyers,' they said. What appeared to be missing from the 60,000 page document dump was any new insight into the actual assassination of JFK. Although the outcome of the documents is yet to be determined, many appear to be under 10 pages long and mostly consist of handwritten notes or typewritten reports, many of which are heavily faded due to age and borderline illegible. The New York Times reported that the files were 'profoundly more impenetrable than all the previous more annotated ones,' and lacked proper classification, with some containing 'random Cuban stuff from 1965.' Historian Tim Naftali told the publication: 'I am trying to find stuff that has been re-reviewed and re-released with new information,' adding 'Some have and some have not.' Meanwhile, Kennedy expert Larry J. Sabato told the Associated Press it will take a long time to sift through the documents and discern if there is anything truly important contained within. 'We have a lot of work to do for a long time to come, and people just have to accept that,' he added.
