What the new Kennedy assassination file reveal

The US National Archives on Tuesday released thousands of pages of declassified records related to the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.

The initial release on Tuesday contained 1,123 records, totaling 32,000 pages. A subsequent release on Tuesday night contained 1,059 records, totaling 31,400 additional pages.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that the release was coming, though he estimated it at about 80,000 pages. "We have a tremendous amount of paper. You've got a lot of reading," he said while visiting the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

What's in the files?

The newly released documents include a memo that for decades helped fuel speculation that the Central Intelligence Agency was somehow involved in the killing of JFK.

Known as the Schlesinger Memo, the 15-page document, dated June 10, 1961, was written by JFK's aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. It warned Kennedy that the CIA was encroaching on his ability to direct foreign policy.

However, no evidence was found in the memo that the CIA conspired with JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, to kill Kennedy.

Meanwhile, several of the newly-released pages showed the CIA had been tapping telephones in Mexico City between December 1962 and January 1963 to monitor the communications of the Soviets and Cubans at their diplomatic facilities, which Oswald visited in the months before the assassination.

Jefferson Morley, a former Washington Post reporter, said in an MSNBC interview that the memo and other documents are more evidence that Kennedy deeply mistrusted the CIA, which had Oswald under surveillance long before Kennedy was killed.

The late James Jesus Angleton, one of the founding members of the CIA, had put Oswald under surveillance starting in November 1959 and was "monitoring his politics, his personal life, his foreign travels, his contacts," Morley said.

Angleton had a 180-page file "on Oswald on his desk a week before Kennedy went to Dallas" in November 1963, Morley said, citing government documents that had been released earlier.

"So what this story raises is the question: Was the CIA incredibly, atrociously, incompetent when it comes to Oswald, or was Angleton actually running an operation involving Oswald?" Morley said.

"We don't have the answer to that question because there are still some relevant records to come out. For example, one file of another CIA officer who was involved in the pre-assassination surveillance of Oswald is still kept secret. This is a great first start."

Still, nothing in the first documents examined undercut the conclusion that Oswald was the lone gunman.

What are the key conspiracy theories?

Despite the lone-gunman conclusion by the commission on the assassination of Kennedy, doubts and conspiracy theories have endured for decades, driven by inconsistencies, eyewitness accounts, and further investigations.

Many suspect shots came from multiple directions, especially the grassy knoll in front of the motorcade, hinting at a second shooter. The Zapruder film, which unexpectedly captured the assassination, showing Kennedy's head jerking backward, supports the theory of a frontal shot, contradicting the commission's rear-shot narrative.

Some believe the CIA either orchestrated or failed to prevent the assassination due to tensions with Kennedy over the Bay of Pigs invasion and Cuba policy.

A US Senate committee in 1975 exposed CIA plots to assassinate Cuba's late leader Fidel Castro, raising suspicions of retaliation or internal dissent. A 1963 memo revealed in previous releases shows a CIA officer concerned about Oswald's activities in Mexico City, where he visited Soviet and Cuban embassies weeks before the assassination.

Critics argue the CIA withheld this information from the commission, as Oswald's communist contacts, possibly monitored or manipulated by the CIA, suggest a broader conspiracy or negligence.

Others argue that Mafia connections, angered by former Attorney General Robert Kennedy's crackdown, may have been involved in the assassination. Some also suspect then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who became president after Kennedy's death, may have had a role in the assassination to seize power.

Tampered or missing evidence adds to the mystery. Key items like Kennedy's brain (missing since the autopsy) and the "magic bullet" theory have long been suspected of being manipulated to support the lone-gunman conclusion.

The "magic bullet" is said to have caused multiple wounds to both Kennedy and John Connally, who was also in the limousine during the assassination. However, this theory is widely seen as implausible. In 2023, a former Secret Service agent stated that he found a bullet in the limousine, not on a stretcher, directly contradicting the Warren Report. Oswald's murky background and sudden death also leave his actual role unclear.

What's hidden in the earlier releases?

The JFK assassination files have been trickling out for years, each release adding layers to the story but never entirely rewriting the official lone-gunman narrative. Instead, they've painted a picture of bureaucratic bungling and persistent gaps in information.

Every batch of documents has zoomed in on Oswald's movements, especially his time in Mexico City and the CIA's watch over him. For example, the 2017 and 2021 releases showed the CIA had tapped his calls and tracked his visits to Soviet and Cuban diplomats. But these details pointed more to intelligence blunders and red tape than a grand conspiracy. The CIA's reluctance to fully brief the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the commission keeps cropping up, but hard proof of a second shooter or deeper agency involvement remains elusive.

Even with all the documents available, key pieces are still missing. Some records, like grand jury transcripts and tax files, remain secret or redacted. The 2023 release, for instance, provided more information about the CIA's wiretapping but didn't reveal any bombshells. These lingering gaps keep conspiracy theories alive as people fill in the blanks.

The slow drip of document releases, often held up by security reviews, has only fueled public curiosity and skepticism. Historians mostly see the files supporting the official story with extra red tape, but doubts linger for many.

As of March 2025, about 99 percent of the roughly 320,000 documents are out there, with the latest batch being the most complete yet. But the JFK assassination remains a hot topic, with its mysteries still up for debate.