 "US President John F Kennedy waves from his car in a motorcade in Dallas, with first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, right, Nellie Connally, second from left, and her husband, Texas Governor John Connally, far left, November 22, 1963. File Image/AP")
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has discovered around 2,400 new secret records related to the assassination of former US President John F Kennedy, Axios reported.
The development comes after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking the declassification of files on the assassinations of JFK, along with Senator Robert F Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The records are contained within 14,000 pages of documents. These records were never provided to a board tasked with reviewing and disclosing them.
The details of the newly discovered records remain secret. Three sources told Axios that such documents existed but stated that they had not seen them.
Finding thousands of records on one of the most examined events in US history may raise questions about how the government reviews and releases information.
“This is huge. It shows the FBI is taking this seriously,” said Jefferson Morley, an expert on the assassination of John F Kennedy. He has sued the US government for more records.
“The FBI is finally saying, ‘Let’s respond to the president’s order,’ instead of keeping the secrecy going,” Morley said.
The 1992 JFK Records Act required assassination records to be given to the JFK Assassination Records Review Board and then to the National Archives. These documents were meant to be fully released in 2017.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsKennedy’s assassination in Dallas
President John F Kennedy was fatally shot on 22 November 1963 while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
Formed US marine killed two days later
Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine, was arrested and charged with the assassination. Two days later, he was killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby before he could stand trial.
The Warren Commission was established by President Lyndon B Johnson to investigate the assassination. The commission concluded that Oswald acted alone. However, the event has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories and ongoing debates.