Over 13,000 secret JFK assassination files released: What to expect and how to see formerly confidential documents

The National Archives and Records Administration released thousands of previously secret files related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.

At the age of 46, Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, as his motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.

In 1992, Congress enacted the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act that "mandated that all assassination-related material be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration." The JFK Act required that all records related to the JFK assassination be released by October 2017, unless the publication would harm national security, harm intelligence sources, or violate privacy protections.

Last year, President Joe Biden delayed the most recent release of the government documents because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, the National Archives released a trove of 13,173 formerly confidential documents pertaining to the assassination of the 35th president of the United States. Prior to Thursday's release, the National Archives had published approximately 55,000 documents.

Politico reported that the release would not satisfy conspiracy theorists, and the files contend that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin.

"The bill’s authors said they hoped to tamp down growing public speculation about a conspiracy in Kennedy’s death, especially the wild skepticism created the year before by Oliver Stone’s star-studded, conspiracy-laden film, 'JFK,'" CIA sources allegedly said. "The officials say there are no obvious bombshells in the material expected to be released today; there will be nothing to suggest Oswald was not the gunman in Dealey Plaza or — as many Americans believe — that there was a conspiracy in Kennedy’s death."

The sources contend, "The new information will be intriguing to historians and assassination researchers who have sought for nearly six decades to connect the dots about a turning point in American history — and to try to understand what possible justification the government could have to withhold any information at all about a president’s murder."

You can view the newly released JFK assassination files on the National Archives website.

On Thursday, Biden signed an executive order to set a new deadline of June 30, 2023, for the National Archives and federal agencies to release the remaining files.

"Pursuant to my direction, agencies have undertaken a comprehensive effort to review the full set of almost 16,000 records that had previously been released in redacted form and determined that more than 70 percent of those records may now be released in full," Biden said. "This significant disclosure reflects my Administration’s commitment to transparency and will provide the American public with greater insight and understanding of the Government’s investigation into this tragic event in American history."

Biden's order stated, "Agencies shall not propose to continue redacting information unless the redaction is necessary to protect against an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure."