President Trump agreed Thursday that withholding records related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy should be permitted, pending review of information that could pose concerns to national security.
Trump said he was inclined to agree with the archivist’s recommendation because withholding the information that could harm U.S. national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs interests outweighed the public’s interest in immediate disclosure.
“Over the past 180 days, executive departments and agencies … have reviewed all of the information within records temporarily withheld from release and have proposed to the Archivist of the United States … that certain information should continue to be redacted because of identifiable national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns,” Trump said.
However, Trump did identify that the American people do deserve to be fully informed of all the aspects of the assassination, as long as it does not interfere with revealing information that could be damaging to U.S. interests.
The memorandum indicates that the archivist should make a new recommendation to the president no later than Oct. 26, 2021, on whether the information should continue to be withheld from public disclosure.
Trump seriously considered making all documents related to Kennedy’s death public in October, but ultimately decided to postpone the decision for six months.
The National Archives released Thursday the largest-ever batch of documents related to JFK’s assassination.
“In accordance with President Trump’s direction on October 26, 2017, the National Archives today posted 19,045 documents subject to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act),” the Archives’ statement says.
All documents related to section five of the JFK Act have either been released in part of in full, according to the Archives’ press release.
No related documents have been fully withheld, and the documents that have been partially withheld have been done so in accordance with protecting national security and foreign affairs interests.
