Thousands of classified files on JFK’s assassination released to the public 

The National Archives on Thursday released thousands of previously classified documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

The collection of 13,000 documents is the second group of classified files that President Joe Biden has ordered to be unsealed after 1,500 were released in December last year. 

“[T]he profound national tragedy of President Kennedy’s assassination continues to resonate in American history and in the memories of so many Americans who were alive on that terrible day; meanwhile, the need to protect records concerning the assassination has weakened with the passage of time,” the White House said in a memorandum Thursday.

“It is therefore critical to ensure that the United States Government maximizes transparency by disclosing all information in records concerning the assassination, except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise.”

Biden said that the National Archives and other agencies have until May 2023 to review any remaining documents. After the deadline, “any information withheld from public discourse that agencies do not recommend for continued postponement” will be released by June 2023. 

Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in his motorcade in Dallas on November 22, 1963, at the age of 46. An investigation into the shooting identified former marine and communist activist Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin. 

Heaps of speculation and conspiracy theories have stemmed from Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. However, White House officials have said that nothing in the documents would support the two most popular conspiracy theories: that Oswald was not the killed and that JFK’s killing was an inside job. 

One of the most significant documents that were released on Thursday includes the 80-volume “personality file” on Oswald. The document contains everything that the CIA knew about Oswald’s life before and after the assassination, according to Politico.