JFK files: House Oversight Committee will hold March hearing, plan to visit Dallas
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Thousands of JFK undisclosed records uncovered
PREVIIOUS COVERAGE: Thousands of records connected to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy as a result of President Donald Trump’s executive order to release the files have been uncovered by the FBI.
WASHINGTON - The House Oversight Committee announced its first hearing on the declassification of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and a possible visit to Dallas.
What we know:
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) announced on the social media platform, X, that the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets will hold its first hearing on the assassination of the former president on March 26.
What they're saying:
"Several key members of the staff [and] counsel from the original Warren Commission of 1963 are still alive today," Luna said on X. "Our @GOPoversight Task Force will interview as many living individuals involved as possible to learn the truth about the assassination of JFK and provide transparency to the American people."
The task force sent letters to the Department of Justice on Feb. 11 and Feb. 19, asking when the files would be released, along with the records surrounding Kennedy's brother Robert F. Kennedy and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The letters also requested briefings on any records surrounding the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.
The Justice Department responded to Luna Wednesday to say they are reviewing the requests.
"The integrity of criminal investigations and prosecutions is essential to every component of the department's mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our nation safe, and protect civil rights," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis said in the response. "The department remains committed to meeting its legal recordkeeping obligations as it pursues that mission."
Task force visit to Dallas
The task force is also planning to visit Dallas and speak with first-hand witnesses, the representative said.
What we don't know:
No details were released on when the visit might happen.
The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets consists of seven Republicans: Luna, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) and Brandon Gill (R-Texas).
Four Democrats are also involved in the task force: Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Dave Min (D-Calif.)
Pres. Trump signs order to declassify JFK, RFK, MLK docs
President Donald J. Trump signs an executive order to declassify documents surrounding the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump's executive order
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 23 to release the remaining classified documents surrounding the assassination of Kennedy in downtown Dallas.
The order also orders the release of documents surrounding the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Everything will be revealed," Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office.
John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992
During his first term, President Trump ordered the records be released under the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.
In 1992, Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. The act ordered the archives to disclose all information collected — some 5 million pages of material — on the assassination within 25 years — barring any exceptions designated by the president.
Trump promised to declassify and release all the documents collected with minimal redactions.
Instead, a few thousand documents were withheld during his first term. In 2018, the president said the remaining documents' potential to cause harm to national security, law enforcement or foreign affairs outweighed the public interest.
Another batch of documents was released in 2021 by President Joe Biden. Documents were also released in 2022 and 2023.
What documents are left to be released?
The contents of the remaining documents are also unknown, as well as the amount of redaction those documents will contain.
The Associated Press reports that a few thousand documents remain to be declassified. Experts do not believe those documents will contain any new, earth-shattering details.
Earlier this month, the FBI announced it had uncovered thousands of records that had not been provided to the board that reviewed and disclosed files.
The files were disclosed after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence submitted its plan to release the remaining JFK files.
What has already been released?
To date, more than 5 million pages of documents related to the assassination of Kennedy have been released by the national archives.
Some of the documents include memos from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover written hours after Lee Harvey Oswald was killed in Dallas asking the government to release something to convince the public that Oswald killed John F. Kennedy.
t was released two days after the president was assassinated and hours after Oswald was killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police station.
Other documents reveal theories by other government officials surrounding the assassination.
A 1975 deposition by Richard Helms states that President Lyndon B. Johnson believed Kennedy was behind the assassination of the South Vietnamese president a few weeks prior to his assassination and that the shooting was retaliation.
Other documents are reports of strange calls to foreign media outlets, plans to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro and information from the former Soviet Union's intelligence agency, the KGB, that linked Johnson to the assassination.
Others are reports of Oswald's trip to Mexico City to visit the Cuban and Soviet Union embassies there and agreements with the U.S. and Mexican governments for the United States to maintain close surveillance on the embassies.
Dallas, Texas - Nov. 22, 1963
President Joe Biden revealed that the archivist finished the review of the documents in May and that the remaining documents authorized to be declassified had been released to the public. (Getty Images)
Kennedy was fatally shot in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, as his motorcade passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository building, where 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days after Kennedy was killed, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.
The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted alone, firing three shots from a window in the depository. Many Americans have questioned this conclusion. In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations ended its own inquiry by finding that Kennedy "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
The Source: Information on the oversight task force comes from posts made on X by Rep. Luna. Information on the executive order to release the records comes from a White House release. Background information comes from previous FOX4 reporting and the Associated Press.