Trump intends to release classified JFK documents


FE Team | Published: October 21, 2017 19:43:22 | Updated: October 25, 2017 05:31:17


Roses lie on a marker outside the home where President John F. Kennedy was born 100 years ago on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts of US. -Reuters file photo

US President Donald Trump intends to allow the release of classified government documents about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy "subject to the receipt of further information."

Trump's tweet comes on Saturday as he is staring down an October 26 deadline set in law by Congress mandating the public release of the still-secret documents, including FBI and CIA files, barring any action by the President to block the release of certain documents.

"Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened," Trump said, appearing to leave open the possibility that some documents could still be withheld.

The White House said in a statement to Politico earlier this week that the White House was working "to ensure that the maximum amount of data can be released to the public" by next week's deadline.

Trump himself is no stranger to the controversies and conspiracy theories that have long swirled around the assassination of the 35th president.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump made the unfounded claim that the father of GOP rival Sen. Ted Cruz was associated with Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, a claim he has never reneged nor apologized for, report agencies.

Trump's longtime political adviser Roger Stone, who helped launch Trump's campaign for president, is also an avid conspiracy theorist who wrote a book about the wild claim that President Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's vice president, was involved in Kennedy's assassination.

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