Will Trump Keep Or Break His Vow To Release The Secret JFK Records?

Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

In October 2022, the Mary Ferrell Foundation filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking the release of the JFK-assassination-related records that the CIA and other federal agencies have succeeded in keeping for more than 60 years. The foundation’s suit was based on the notion that the JFK Records Act of 1992 mandated the release of those records.

Not surprisingly, the CIA, operating through the Justice Department, fiercely opposed the lawsuit. It argued that “national security” required the continued secrecy of those 60-year-old records, even into perpetuity.

Recently, the Ninth Circuit federal Court of Appeals made it clear that it was siding with the government and keeping these records secret. See “Court Ruling Begs the Question, Is the JFK Records Act Dead?” by Chad Nagle, which is posted on the website of JFK Facts.

That certainly doesn’t surprise me.

While I greatly admire the people and attorneys who brought the lawsuit, I never had much hope that any federal judge, including those on the U.S. Supreme Court, would dare to buck the national-security establishment, especially on something like this.

Meanwhile, a member of Congress is proposing to bring into existence a new version of the Assassination Records Review Board, the independent agency that was charged with enforcing the JFK Records Act back in the 1990s. The ARRB did a fantastic job in securing the release, oftentimes over the fierce objections of the Deep State, of thousands of assassination-related records that the CIA, Pentagon, Secret Service, and other Deep State agencies had succeeded in keeping secret for more than 30 years.

Unfortunately, however, the JFK Records Act gave those federal agencies an additional 25 years of secrecy on thousands of records, on grounds of “national security,” while letting the ARRB go out of existence. That meant that when those 25 years were up, there was no federal agency in existence to enforce the law.

Will Congress bring into existence another ARRB? In my opinion, there isn’t any reasonable possibility of that happening. That’s because Congress is even more deferential to the national-security branch of the federal government than the federal judiciary is. The members of Congress know what will happen if they buck the Pentagon or the CIA: they will be threatened with closure of military bases and installations within their district, thereby making them “ineffective” members of Congress. Moreover, there is now a large number of proud military veterans and “former” CIA officials now serving in Congress who remain fiercely loyal to the national-security establishment. In my opinion, there is no reasonable possibility that this military-intelligence-congressional complex is going to help secure the release of those long-secret assassination-related records, given that the Deep State continues to fiercely oppose disclosure.

Given that President Biden has authorized the CIA and other federal agencies to keep their assassination-related records secret into perpetuity, there is, of course, no reasonable possibility that he will change his mind before leaving office (as he has done with his pardon of his son Hunter).

That leaves President-elect Donald Trump. In his campaign for reelection, he vowed to release the long-secret JFK-assassination records this time around. As you’ll recall, the last time he was president, he announced that he intended to release them when that 25-year period came due during his administration. But once he received a visit from the CIA, Trump quickly changed his mind and ordered that the records continue to be kept secret.

This time around, Trump’s supporters say that he has changed. This time, they say, he really is going to stand up to the Deep State and fulfill his vow to release those long-secret JFK-assassination-related records — no matter what the CIA, the Pentagon, and other federal agencies say. They say that his friendship with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will motivate him to keep his vow.

Okay, so let’s make it easy for Trump to fulfill his vow to get those long-secret JFK-assassination-related records released. All he has to do is prepare an order right now — before he is sworn into office — that will be good-to-go on his first day in office.

In fact, to make things easier and faster for him, I have prepared the following proposed order.

ORDER

I, President Donald Trump, hereby order the National Archives, the CIA, the Pentagon, the Secret Service, and all other federal agencies to immediately release and disclose all their records relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, including the removal of all redacted portions of all such records. After more than 60 years of secrecy, enough is enough. No more secrecy.

Signed this 20th day of January 2025.
___________________________________
Donald Trump, President

Will Trump fulfill or break his vow to release such records by issuing that type of order? My prediction: Trump will join the federal judiciary and the Congress and, once again, defer to the Deep State. He will break his vow, either by ignoring it indefinitely or by, once again, ordering only a partial release of some of the records, including letting the CIA and other federal agencies keep portions of their long-secret records redacted.

All he has to do is print it, sign it, and publish it on his first day in office.