 "FBI uncovers 2,400 secret records on John F Kennedy's assassination")
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has identified approximately 2,400 records related to the former US President John F Kennedy’s assassination that were never submitted to the board responsible for reviewing and disclosing such documents, according to a report by Axios.
The FBI informed this to the White House on January 7, when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) submitted its plan for document releases in accordance with Trump's order. The secret documents spanning 14,000 pages surfaced during an internal FBI review.
This came after US President Donald Trump’s January 23 executive order, in which he ordered the release of all assassination-related documents as part of his promise during the election campaign. The revelation comes 61 years after Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
John F Kennedy's assassination
John F Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was shot and killed while riding in a car through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. He was in the car with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally’s wife Nellie.
The shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, fired from a nearby building. Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital but died about 30 minutes later. Connally was also shot but survived. Vice President Lyndon B Johnson became president just over two hours later on Air Force One.
After the shooting, Oswald went home to get a pistol and later shot and killed a Dallas police officer, JD Tippit. About 70 minutes after Kennedy was shot, police arrested Oswald and charged him with both murders.
Two days later, on November 24, while being moved at the Dallas Police Headquarters, Oswald was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby in front of live TV cameras. Oswald was also taken to Parkland Hospital, where he died. Ruby was found guilty but later won an appeal for a new trial. However, he died in prison in 1967 before the retrial happened.
A long history of secrecy
Since Kennedy’s assassination, the US government has faced criticism for withholding critical documents. Under the 1992 JFK Records Act, all assassination-related materials were supposed to be turned over to the JFK Assassination Records Review Board and then made publicly available through the National Archives. However, these newly discovered records were never vetted or disclosed as required.
“This is huge. It shows the FBI is taking this seriously,” Jefferson Morley, an expert on the Kennedy assassination and vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, told Axios, which has been suing the US government for more transparency.
“The FBI is finally saying, ‘Let’s respond to the president’s order’ instead of keeping the secrecy going,” Morley added.
Will the documents reveal a conspiracy?
According to the Axios report, despite the scale of this discovery, experts caution that the records are unlikely to definitively confirm or debunk theories about Kennedy’s assassination—including whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone or was part of a broader conspiracy.
Previous administrations, including Trump in 2017 and Joe Biden thereafter, have delayed full disclosure of assassination records, citing concerns over intelligence sources and methods. However, Trump regretted not releasing all records during his first term and vowed to do so if re-elected.
Despite Trump’s directive, intelligence agencies are still recommending redactions to the JFK files.
The revelation could impact an ongoing federal lawsuit by the Mary Ferrell Foundation against the Biden administration, filed in 2022. The lawsuit alleges that federal agencies withheld key records that were never turned over to the National Archives.