US postpones disclosure of JFK assassination 'sealed records' from Oct deadline to Dec 15

White House on October 22 announced that it will release more documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy to the public as per the Records Collection Act of 1992, but added that it might further postpone the release owing to the ongoing pandemic. US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been reviewing the records, it said, adding that the review is expected to finish before December 15, 2021, and shall be publicly released on the anniversary date of President Kennedy’s assassination. Under the 1992 law, some records sealed were sealed by the federal court and can only be unsealed by a judge, NARA said. 

White House late Friday released a memorandum on the temporary certification regarding disclosure of declassified information, after Congress declared, “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.” 

The Archivist of the United States (Archivist), however,  reported that “unfortunately, the pandemic has had a significant impact on the agencies” and NARA and that NARA “require[s] additional time to engage with the agencies and to conduct research within the larger collection to maximize the amount of information released.” 

The memo further asked US President Joe Biden to “temporarily certify the continued withholding of all of the information certified in 2018.”

Archived/ sealed records of Kennedy assassination 'almost 30 years old'

In the Presidential memo, the White House disclosed that most of the records and documents related to the mortal shooting of the 35th president of the United States President John F. Kennedy are almost 30 years old. The leader was assassinated 58 years ago, in 1963, and the assailant named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime. A 1975 CIA memo released by the US government marked "top secret" also showed that Kennedy's killer Oswald was on a "watch list". 

[Credit: archives.gov/US Govt]

Trump, who faced same pressure, cited 'national security' to keep documents sealed

Former US President Donald Trump had faced the same pressure of releasing the thousands of files and records to the public, that have been kept in secrecy, but the Trump administration delayed it citing ‘national security issue.'

Trump's presidential memorandum in the earlier deadline had stated that the Archivist of the US had, over the last 180 days, reviewed Kennedy assassination records that have "remained sealed in the collection that agencies had sought to keep sealed or redacted because of identifiable national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns."

Trump had adhered to the request made by the then-Director of CIA’s request to keep the ‘most sensitive’ JFK assassination records sealed with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo until at least October 2021, apparently for another 3 1/2 years. The US National Archives, although, released a final batch under the 1992 law set by Congress that required all the remaining documents for Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, to be released to the public within the 25-year deadline. 

As the deadline approached last year on Oct. 26, ex-US President Trump granted the US federal agencies a six-month extension to plead a case to keep the records sealed for on recommendation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and CIA. Until now, only 15,884 records have been partially released, and the US National Archives released 19,045 documents, which can be accessed here along with the 1978 testimony of the then CIA station chief in Mexico City, David Atlee Phillips. 

"God knows I would like for it to come out that Fidel Castro was responsible or that the Soviets were responsible," Phillips’ transcript of the four-decade-old testimony before the House Select Committee on Kennedy Assassination released by National Archives, stated. 

As President Joe Biden faced the deadline earlier yesterday, he released the memo saying that the national archivist has recommended him to put out "two public releases of the information that has ultimately been determined to be appropriate for release to the public.” The first is an 'interim release' later this year, and the second would be a more comprehensive release in late 2022.  White House memo further stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the process, but agreed that the 'need to protect records' concerning the assassination has only grown weaker with the passage of time. It also called for the  United States Government to maximize transparency, and disclose all information in records. 

“Postponement remains 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,” White House memo issued by US President Joe Biden read late Friday. 

US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, while he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. At the time, his advisors were planning to organize the next presidential campaign for his election, although the latter had not formally announced his candidacy.