Biden approves release of more Kennedy assassination records

President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 12,789 previously-undisclosed documents relating to the November 1963 assassination of the 35th President of the United States, John F Kennedy, while allowing fewer than 4,000 remaining undisclosed documents to continue to be reviewed.

The documents were made public by the National Archives and Records Administration (Nara) shortly after Mr Biden issued a memorandum directing their release.

The latest tranche of assassination records – and another released by Nara last December – have been disclosed pursuant to a 1992 law, the President John F Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which stated that “all Government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy ... should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination.”

Under Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, Nara began readying significant portions of records from the JFK collection for release after Mr Trump announced on Twitter that he’d be allowing “the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened”, though he allowed records to be withheld if agencies could show that disclosure would harm military operations. By 26 April 2018 (the deadline Mr Trump set for agencies to lobby for continued secrecy) only around 15,000 remained redacted, though the Covid-19 pandemic prevented the archives agency from fully implanting plans to declassify more.

Mr Biden continued the process of disclosing documents required to be released under Section 5 of the JFK Records Act, which states that declassification of assassination records can only be postponed to prevent “identifiable harm to military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations where the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure”.

In a memorandum authorising further withholding of some remaining documents, Mr Biden said agencies had convinced him that there is still “identifiable harm” that could result from full disclosure at this time, and ordered the documents to be withheld until 30 June 2023.

He further ordered Nara and “relevant agencies” to “jointly review the remaining redactions in the records ... with a view to maximizing transparency and disclosing all information in records concerning the assassination, except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise”.

Mr Biden also added that anything withheld past the June 2023 deadline would be “limited to the absolute minimum under the statutory standard”.

In a statement, the Archives said all documents required to be disclosed under Section 5 of the JFK Records Act have been released to the public “in their entirety or in part,” and noted that some documents remain secret because of rules governing the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.

“The National Archives and the Department of Justice are working together to determine whether information in five records withheld in full under court seal or for grand jury secrecy ... the JFK Act can be released,” the agency said.

The White House said the release of the records has been a “commitment of the president”.

“President Biden believes all information related to President Kennedy’s assassination should be released to the greatest extent possible, consistent with national security,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.