National Archives releases bulk of remaining JFK files; Intel-sensitive docs held for 180-day review

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Oct 27, 2017
President John F. Kennedy sits aboard the United States Coast Guard boat Manitou in Narragansett Bay, Newport, Rhode Island. The President sailed on the yacht during his vacation at Hammersmith Farm in Newport. (JFK Library photo by Robert L. Knudsen)

The National Archives upon the order of President Donald J. Trump released 2,891 records Thursday related to the Nov. 22, 1963 murder of President John F. Kennedy covered by the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/923277142271684609

There is no searchable database, but there is an Excel spreadsheet that can search for words in the short descriptions in the spreadsheet.

The records can be downloaded online.

A document released Oct. 27, 2017, that details an interview about Jack Ruby, the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of shooting President John F. Kennedy. (Screenshot)

The president has also ordered that all remaining records governed by section 5 of the JFK Act be released, the statement from the National Archives said.

Section 5 states: “As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act, each Government office shall identify and organize its records relating to the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy and prepare them for transmission to the Archivist for inclusion in the Collection.”

The actual processing of the JFK records and their release is handled by the National Archives and Records Administration, which said it will post records publicly on a rolling basis.

Records still held back are part of a 180-day intelligence review, the archives said.

Based on requests from executive offices and agencies the President has allowed the temporary withholding of certain information that would harm national security, law enforcement, or foreign affairs. The President also ordered agencies to re-review their proposed redactions and only redact information in the rarest of circumstances where its withholding “is made necessary by an identifiable harm to military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations; and the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.” These instructions will allow the National Archives to release as much information as possible by the end of the temporary certification period on April 26, 2018.

The last significant release of JFK records was July 24, 2017, which was 3,810 records, including 441 records previously withheld in their entirety and 3,369 records previously withheld in part.