The National Archives has released numerous files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday at President Trump’s direction after he pledged to do so on the campaign trail and in office.
The release of the documents follows an executive order that Trump signed in January, just a few days after the start of his second term, to order the release of remaining federal government documents concerning the assassinations of JFK, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The order called on the director of national intelligence and attorney general to present a plan within 15 days for the “full and complete release of records” related to JFK’s assassination.
The Kennedy assassination in November 1963 has long spurred conspiracy theories about who was responsible for killing the 35th president and if there was a wider conspiracy of others involved. Lee Harvey Oswald, a Marine veteran who identified as a Marxist, assassinated Kennedy as the president’s motorcade rode through Dealy Plaza in Dallas.
Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby then shot and killed Oswald two days later while Oswald was about to be transferred to a different jail.
The Warren Commission, formed to investigate the killings, concluded that Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy and so did Ruby in killing Oswald. But conspiracy theories, including ones arguing involvement from the CIA and the mafia and the possibility of a second shooter, have lingered.