FBI says it has found 2,400 new files related to President Kennedy's assassination

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday it has uncovered 2,400 new files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as federal agencies work to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order last month to release thousands of records. The FBI said it is working to transfer the records to the National Archives and Records Administration to be included in the declassification process.

In 1992, Congress had ordered that all remaining secret files related to the investigation into the assassination of former President Kennedy should be fully opened to the public through the National Archives after 25 years, on October 26, 2017, with the exception of those that the president authorized to remain secret.

While the vast majority of the collection, which includes over 5 million pages of documents, has been made public, researchers estimate that around 3,000 files have not been published, in part or in full.

The FBI did not say what data the leaked files contained. In 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a documentation center, beginning a multi-year effort to electronically collect and inventory closed cases from its offices across the country.

The agency said a more comprehensive data inventory and advanced technology enabled the discovery of the documents in question.

Jefferson Morley, vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository for files related to President Kennedy's assassination, praised the FBI's discovery of the documents.

“This shows that the FBI is serious about being transparent,” said Mr. Morley, who is also the editor of the blog “JFK Facts.” He added that the move serves as an example for other agencies to also provide files that have not yet been turned over to the National Archives.

President Trump's order last month directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan to release classified data related to the assassination of President Kennedy.

A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the plan to release the data had been submitted pursuant to the order, but did not provide details or a timeline for the release of the documents.

During his first term, President Trump said he would allow the release of all remaining documents, but apparently for national security reasons some files were not released. While some files continued to be released during President Biden's administration, some did not cross the threshold.

The assassination of President Kennedy has fueled conspiracy theories for decades. President Kennedy was shot dead in downtown Dallas by 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Two days after the president's assassination, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed assassin Lee Harvey Oswald as he was being transported to prison.

The Warren Commission, set up by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of the president, concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that conclusion did not end a series of different theories over the decades.

Files released in recent years have provided details about how the intelligence services operated at the time, and include CIA cables and memos discussing Oswald's visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to the Mexican capital just weeks before the assassination. The former US Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning to Texas to be with his family.

The executive order that President Trump signed last month also seeks to release secret files related to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the late president and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

President Trump has nominated President Kennedy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be secretary of health and human services in his new administration. Mr. Kennedy, whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 while seeking the Democratic nomination for president, has said he is not convinced that a gunman was solely responsible for the 1963 assassination of his uncle, President Kennedy./ VOA