Thousands of secret documents on JFK assassination could be made public

Thousands of top secret documents that could hold never-before-revealed details about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are scheduled to be made public this fall.

But some intelligence agencies are pushing to keep the secret files classified.

President Trump will make the final decision about whether to declassify the documents.

If you were alive on Nov. 22,1963, you likely remember where you were.

Even if you were born in the decades after, you've still seen the images and heard about what happened on that tragic day.

Now, nearly 55 years later, more than 3,000 documents from the investigation remain locked up inside the national archives.

“Do you think there could be things in this evidence that dispute the official Warren account?” Gray asked. “Oh yes,” said Andrew Kreig, with the Justice Integrity Project.

By law, all the documents related to the investigation must be unsealed and made public by October.

Just weeks ago, thousands of pages of new documents were released, but it’s unknown what's in the final, still secret, batch.

“I have no idea what’s in these final documents, but it is interesting that apparently there is something so secret or sensitive in them that at least two agencies feel that, 50 years after the assassination, they're still sensitive -- so secret they can't be made public. I gotta wonder what's in there,” Author Philip Shenon said.

Shenon was a New York Times reporter for two decades and is the author of a best-selling book on the Kennedy assassination.

He said there is pressure on President Trump to keep the files secret.

“Only one person has the ability to stop the release of these documents under the law, and that's the President of the United States,” Shenon said.

So why, 50 years later, would people within the government still want to keep the files classified? Like anything else related to that day, there are lots of theories.

“I think it may show just how much more bungling there had been by the government before the assassination, and how Kennedy's life should have been saved,” Shenon said.

“Many people who might arguably be involved in what might be thought of as a cover up are still quite prominent in America,” Kreig said.

He said this is more than just a 20th century mystery to be debated by history buffs or conspiracy theorists.

“Why in 2017 should people care about this?” Gray asked. “Because it's the Rosetta Stone to current affairs,” Kreig said.

The files of how the FBI, CIA and others investigated that notorious day could be a window into how those agencies investigate high-profile cases in the present day, Kreig said.

That's why he says seeing those classified documents from so long ago is so important now.

“Whatever one's view is, go to the evidence,” Kreig said.

A Cox Media Group reporter reached out repeatedly to the White House over the past two weeks about the documents, but has not received a response from the president.

Cox Media Group