Joe Biden Postponed Release of Archives of John F. Kennedy Assassination
The postponement came on the recommendation of the national archivist, who said that the pandemic "has had a significant impact on the agencies" responsible for reviewing each draft of the documents.
The postponement came on the recommendation of the national archivist, who said that the pandemic "has had a significant impact on the agencies" responsible for reviewing each draft of the documents.
President Joe Biden has again postponed the release of secret government files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, citing delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Release of the files was originally scheduled for next week. They will now be released in two batches: one later this year and one in late 2022, Biden said in a White House memo on Friday.
According to the memorandum, the postponement came on the recommendation of the national archivist, who said that the pandemic "has had a significant impact on the agencies" responsible for reviewing each draft of the documents.
“The archivist has also pointed out that‘ making these decisions is a matter that requires a professional, scholarly and orderly process; not rushed decisions or posts, '”Biden wrote, adding that he agreed that the agencies needed more time.
"The temporary postponement is necessary to protect against identifiable damage to military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such severity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure," he said. President.
Biden said some documents will be released on December 15 of this year, but not before "out of respect for the anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy," which took place on November 22, 1963. The remaining documents will undergo a "review. intensive one year ”and will be published before December 15, 2022.
Under the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, all assassination records should have been made public within 25 years - or before October 2017 - but deferrals were allowed in cases where that national security concerns outweighed the public interest in disclosure. The National Archives note that about 88% of the records have been made public since the late 1990s.
President Donald Trump announced in 2017 that he planned to publicly disclose the remaining JFK files, only to delay the release of some of the files for national security reasons, setting a new deadline of October 26, 2021. In 2018, Trump did. It ended up authorizing the release of 19,045 documents, of which about three-quarters still contained some redactions.
Earlier this month, some members of Congress wrote to Biden urging him to fully release all JFK files, including 520 documents that remain undisclosed to the public and 15,834 documents that were previously released but are partially or largely redacted. The letter is signed by Democratic Congressmen Anna Eshoo from California, Steve Cohen from Tennessee, Jim McGovern from Massachusetts, Jamie Raskin from Maryland, Sara Jacobs from California, Joe Neguse from Colorado and Raul Grijalva from Arizona.
"Democracy requires that decisions made by the government be open to public scrutiny," the lawmakers wrote. "However, the excessive secrecy surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy continues to cast doubt on the minds of the American public and has a profound impact on the confidence of the people in hi s government."
Biden said Friday that the need to protect records "has only weakened with the passage of time" and that he agreed that it was critical that the US government "maximize transparency."
"Nearly 30 years after the Act, the profound national tragedy of the assassination of President Kennedy continues to resonate in American history and in the memory of so many Americans who were alive on that terrible day," Biden wrote. "Therefore, it is critical to ensure that the United States Government maximizes transparency by disclosing all information from the records relating to the murder, except when the strongest reasons advise otherwise."
