Trump Plans Release Of Suppressed JFK Records

President Trump fulfilled important goals of the Justice Integrity Project and other transparency advocates around the world when he announced on Oct. 21 his plan to release remaining classified documents pertaining to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened,” Trump tweeted on early Saturday regarding the assassination. JFK’s death unfolded shortly after the adjoining photo was taken of his motorcade in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The long-awaited news of Trump’s thinking was reported by, among other places, the Washington Post in Trump plans to release JFK assassination documents despite concerns from federal agencies and by the New York Times in Trump Says He Will Release Final Set of Documents on Kennedy Assassination. Both news reports are excerpted below.

Citizens Against Political Assassinations (CAPA), on whose board this editor serves, convened by conference call Oct. 21 to discuss the developments. CAPA Chairman Cyril H. Wecht, the prominent forensic pathologist, consultant and author, led the group in reiterating its longstanding support for document release and the applauding the president’s “courage” in his action.

Wecht, 86, was a county coroner in Pittsburgh for 20 years. A longtime medical school professor and attorney, he still undertakes hundreds of autopsies a year and is the author or co-author of more than 40 books and 500 scientific articles.

He among those who have described in books and lectures for decades the considerable scientific evidence that accused killer Lee Harvey Oswald could not possibly have fired the fatal shot killing Kennedy. His view opposes official reports by the FBI and Warren Commission parrotted by the media since the day after the killing. 

Wecht is shown at a CAPA forum March 16 at the National Press Club (in a photo by Noel St. John) describing the overwhelming scientific evidence discrediting the mainstream media accounts of the JFK killing and the vital importance for the American people of document release and informed commentary.

This editor has been active through the Justice Integrity Project, CAPA and elsewhere in advocating for these JFK document releases in cooperation with other JFK research groups and freedom of information advocates.

Opposed are those claiming that “national security” should prevent disclosure of what are estimated to be thousands of pages of remaining classified documents, including those thought to be highly embarrassing to intelligence and investigative agencies that helped cover up the truth at the beginning and continuing to the present.

Most media outlets also have advocated since the shooting a simplistic story claiming that former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone nut who fired three shots to kill the president with no help from anyone else. At this point, most of those outlets appeared this weekend to be featuring for commentary only or at least primarily those analysts who claim that new documents will simply reinforce the Warren Commission’s original findings.

Thus the information wars involve not just release of the documents but a fair opportunity for alternative experts to help the public understand the evidence. For such reasons, this column, continued below, is segment 42 of the Justice Integrity Project’s “Readers Guide to the JFK Assassination,” whose previous segments are excerpted below with hot links to the lists of all major books, films, archives, plus interpretative articles..