Trump Announces Release of 80,000 JFK Assassination Documents

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his administration will release approximately 80,000 pages of documents related to the 1963 assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy. The move revives long-standing public interest in one of the country’s most debated historical events.

Speaking to reporters at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Trump confirmed that the files would be fully released, stating, “I don’t believe we are going to redact anything. I said, ‘Just don’t redact; you can’t redact.’ But we are going to be releasing the JFK files.”

The announcement follows an executive order signed in January, directing the full release of all remaining documents related to the assassination of JFK, as well as files concerning the deaths of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Trump described the release as containing “a lot of reading” and promised it would be “very interesting.”

President Trump told reporters Monday that over 80,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of JFK will be released on Tuesday, adding, "I don't believe we're going to redact anything."

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— ABC News (@ABC) March 17, 2025

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, an event that has fueled conspiracy theories for decades. Public opinion surveys consistently show widespread scepticism of the official findings that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. A 2023 Gallup poll found that 65% of Americans did not accept the Warren Commission’s conclusion, with 20% believing Oswald conspired with the US government and 16% suspecting CIA involvement.

JFK Records Act and Previous Releases

Under the 1992 JFK Records Act, the U.S. government was mandated to release all relevant documents by 2017 unless the president determined that doing so would pose a national security risk. During Donald Trump’s first administration, only 2,800 documents were released after intelligence agencies requested additional time to review the materials.

President Trump on JFK Files: "We are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files…I don't believe we are are going to redact anything…it's going to be very interesting…approximately 80,000 pages." pic.twitter.com/0NW4QdLSzL

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 17, 2025

Former President Joe Biden later authorized the release of approximately 17,000 additional records. Currently, fewer than 4,700 files remain partially or fully classified. According to the National Archives, more than 99% of the approximately 320,000 documents reviewed under the Act have now been released.

This new release is part of a broader directive by Trump, which also includes records linked to the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F. Kennedy. Trump has instructed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to submit a plan to declassify these files.

In February, the FBI confirmed it had uncovered over 2,400 previously unseen documents related to the JFK assassination, further fueling public curiosity.