BackWill release all JFK files to end ‘conspiracy theories’: Donald Trump
Donald Trump said he will release all files associated with the assassination of former president John F Kennedy to end all 'conspiracy theories'
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Washington: US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he will release all files associated with the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy to end all “conspiracy theories".
Trump said this in a tweet a day after the National Archives, at his direction, released more than 2,800 secret files related to the assassination of Kennedy on 22 November 1963. At the same time, he agreed to the request from various intelligence and security agencies mainly FBI and CBI, to withhold quite a number of such files, which remains away from the public domain, thus increasingly providing fodder to conspiracy theories.
In his tweet, Trump said after strict consultation with his chief of staff, general John Kelly, the CIA and other agencies, “I will be releasing ALL JFK files" other than the names and addresses of any mentioned person who is still living. “I am doing this for reason of full disclosure, transparency and in order to put any and all conspiracy theories to rest," Trump said, a day after he ordered a large number of JFK files still be under the wraps.
At the same time he ordered for a 180-day review of all such files. “This temporary withholding from full public disclosure is necessary to protect against harm to the military defence, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure," Trump said in a memo.
The American public expects—and deserves—its government to provide as much access as possible to the Kennedy assassination records so that the people may finally be fully informed about all aspects of this pivotal event, Trump argued. Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions agreed and said that there is need to expedite the process.
“We are working this weekend. We are going to be working every way possible to expedite the production of these documents as completely as possible and they will be virtually, completely revealed from the FBI files," he told Fox News in an interview. Sessions said Trump is right to say to get these materials out.
“Some of documents have already been produced today and they will be moving faster, there will not be, I believe, any significant redactions - redaction that may have been suggested will not be in there," he said. “There’s going to be virtually complete disclosure. Some people who are alive may not need their names or their current addresses revealed. Lot of it is extraneous entirely," Sessions said. PTI
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