Order Declassifying JFK and MLK Assassination Records [pdf]
82 comments
·February 4, 2025adamredwoods
nomel
Someone previously decided that the remaining 1%, 1700 files, shouldn't be viewed by the public. Why? 1700 files is plenty to hold some interesting truths.
ttyprintk
Some people have seen those and are allowed to talk about them:
whycome
Why do you think a certain amount has remained classified?
bentobean
The remaining 1% is almost certainly where the good stuff is.
uoaei
Are you assuming that the decisions of which pages were declassified was a random sample? Why would they have selected any pages to remain hidden?
kelipso
It was a campaign process and obviously people want to know the whole story.
SecretDreams
> obviously people want to know the whole story.
And, yet, they never will.
karaterobot
To play devil's advocate, you could declassify 99% of the files, and still leave out the incriminating parts. I don't believe this is what happened, I'm just saying 99% of the truth can still leave a lot out.
LastTrain
Yeah he's just a sensitive, empathetic man yearning for closure lol...
SecretDreams
Bigly smaht, too.
softgrow
And once it is released you'll know and the mystery will be gone. I (Australian) was very enthused when the "Somerton man" was resolved. But it took away mystery and wonder from me which actually gave me joy.
dgfitz
Surely nobody sees this as a bad thing. It’s been a bit since these events happened.
LastTrain
Nope, not a bad thing, but I'm still waiting on the sasquatch files.
addicted
Agreed. Trump should never have allowed the redaction of rhe JFK files in 2017 when he was legally bound to release them In the first place.
stevenwoo
During his first term, Trump was the one who stopped all the records from being released automatically. This is his MO, to claim as victory something that would have happened without him opening his mouth in the first place.
djha-skin
This might make sense if the MLK and RFK assassinations weren't also being disclosed, and that without any act of congress.
ttyprintk
I don’t get the downvotes; this is factually true. We don’t know what Pompeo told Trump in 2017, when the records would automatically release the remaining 3,648 by law, yet Trump blocked. Biden released 2,672 of those. Unless he finds a secret stash, Trump can’t beat those numbers now.
nailer
He was asked about this by Joe Rogan, his response at there is some concern that some of the people involved was still alive, but now he feels that doesn’t override the need of the families and American people to know.
This post is not political whether you believe or do not believe Trump is up to you.
macinjosh
Yep. That person is Ruth Paine
sahila
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Jtsummers
[delayed]
blkhawk
Maybe its truly a nothing-burger. even if released uncensored the most salient information would be details about how the secret service deployed and what they did wrong? Personally I think that is probably the most likely thing that would be still considered classified even if the details are completely obvious.
I mean most classified information is classified because its classified. By that I mean it is classified because nobody declassified it. That gets you hilarious press conferences like that navy UFO thing in trumps last term where the spokesperson could only say "the US does not have the technology to build a flying object like this" (paraphrased from memory).
I am pretty sure an analyst looked at the footage and identified a sea-bird and the US does not have the technology to build a bird exactly. But analyst output is automatically classified so.....
ggddv
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likeabatterycar
> This is his MO, to claim as victory something that would have happened without him opening his mouth in the first place
We used to call this confirmation bias....
IAmNotACellist
I can think of a few agencies that might be sweating. Or maybe it'll come out that it really was just a random nutjob. Or they'll redact something and conspiracy theorists will forever say that the crucial piece of evidence is contained under the last remaining Sharpie ink
sirbutters
Bullseye. That's exactly what will happen. They have much more to gain by keeping some of the mystery. If they hand out a black and white explanation they have 1 less leverage to manipulate the mass.
hn_throwaway_99
Heck, it doesn't matter even if there are zero redactions. I saw a good cartoon along these lines: Trump agrees with the need to release any and all info about the JFK assassinations, which shows that all the evidence points to Oswald being the lone killer. The conspiracy theorist responds "This goes deeper than we thought..."
I'm all for releasing all the known evidence about the case, but a large swath of people will never be satisfied unless they hear exactly what they want to hear. There are still a sizable number of people who think the Moon landings were faked, despite all evidence to the contrary.
bko
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alchemist1e9
Mossad and CIA might have a different take … some people say.
recursivedoubts
let’s get this party started
RajT88
I am sure it makes some TLA look bad. I fully expect to not have everything released.
JKCalhoun
It depends on how bad it is. For example, if it turned out that a Secret Service officer fired a stray round that hit the President then I don't think we're going to see that made public ever.
addicted
The FBI.
The FBI was out for MLK.
In his first term Trump liked the FBI so he allowed them to redact the JFK files he was legally supposed to release to the public.
But in 2025 they’re his bogey man so releasing it so Kash Patel has an even easier time remolding it in his image makes a lot of sense.
skissane
If the FBI had really done it, I doubt they would have left classified records saying they had. Most likely, either the records would have been destroyed long ago, or they never would have created any in the first place
Other possibility: they really didn’t do it, but there’s some classified record which sure makes it sound like they did. e.g. some record of J. Edgar Hoover joking about doing it
RajT88
Yeah, I mean. Given what is known about the FBI and MLK how much worse could it get?
Fun fact: there is a statue of MLK at the FBI academy in Quantico.
bag_boy
Tangentially related:
My coworking space is a century old hardware distribution building in Birmingham, AL. It's about a 1-2 miles away from the predominantly African American neighborhood that was constantly bombed in the 50s.
I was told the FBI searched the building a few decades ago in the hopes of finding the rifle used in MLK's assassination.
Birmingham was a wild town for many years!
adamgamble
Is this innovation depot?
bognition
Great do Epstein next
conductr
He probably already knows, because, well, ya know
declan_roberts
It should be bipartisan at this point to demand the release.
If it makes everyone in office look bad then all the better!
skullone
Because a ton of people in office were his "clients". This country is rotten
shmoe
That's precisely why we'll never see it.
likeabatterycar
No I don't know, tell us.
lawn
Trump, a sexual offender known to grab pussies of random women, had a relationship with Epstein.
Yeah, unless his dementia worsens even more he's not going to release those files.
api
I think the desire to keep that stuff quiet is bipartisan because loads of people from both parties are exposed, as well as too many wealthy people.
Now that we also have P-Diddy it makes me wonder just how many high class sleazy pimps with blackmail operations are operating at a given time. This must be a standard racket.
niceice
There's a good chance it will happen, Musk has been pushing for this.
cma
I doubt he's pushing for it internally:
https://www.businessinsider.com/jeffrey-epsteins-ex-girlfrie...
ttyprintk
Yeah, you can bet it won’t be on a slow news day.
asciii
[flagged]
etc-hosts
doesn't matter. many of the entities investigating at the time have since destroyed their records.
null
honestSysAdmin
[dead]
ldjkfkdsjnv
Big thing is these documents shed MLK in a bad light...
ceejayoz
As much as some would like to pretend it does, his issues in his personal life still don’t make segregation and lack of voting rights an okay thing.
ldjkfkdsjnv
Yes, but he was really bad in some respects, that clashes with his public image/caricature in a way that kind of matters
floatrock
I mean, we're regressing everything else back to the good ol' 1960's, so yeah, sure, why not, lets whip out the ol "sexual deviant" playbook to discredit some basic human rights and fairness.
As long as people are distracted by some black guy's bisexuality or whatever they won't ask questions about all the underage human trafficking on epstein's lolita express with the people who are actually alive and running the government today.
Oh, and icing on the cake: it's a good pretext to remove MLK Day and that Black History Month. Guy was a sexual deviant, so clearly the civil rights movement was a giant discredited DEI sham. eg https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/defense-agency...
spencerflem
cool
5cott0
mlk's philandering will then be used as a pretext to change mlk day to elon musk day
djha-skin
Interesting considering the attempted assassination of Trump. Perhaps he feels that some sunlight could help prevent future assassinations, or maybe he simply feels kinship to these his fallen political peers.
ronbenton
I think he's been talking about this stuff for a while. He's a populist and people are generally interested in this stuff.
swozey
I've assumed he thought it would damage the FBI/CIA/someone he's dismantling. I'm a millennial so I didn't grow up with it but I can't explain how little I care. JFK was born in 1917.
Seeing people line up at the curve in the road where he was shot in Dallas was wild. It's literally just a curve in the road going downtown. Nothing remarkable. Too bad he didn't return a few years ago, I guess.
asadm
Do we know if Israel approved of this or no?
guidedlight
A very convincing confession was published for the first time last month, of someone who alleges to have shot JFK.
zoklet-enjoyer
How long was Keefe D on YouTube talking about Tupac's murder before the police took him seriously enough to do something?
Most of the documents were declassified already, I think 99% of 170,000 files or some large number. This was through the The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. I don't know what's to gain in this release other than closure?