JFK Files: What are they and why is Trump releasing them?

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Mr Trump announced: “Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK files to be opened.” Speculation mounted among his critics that Mr Trump might have readily agreed to release the files in order to distract from the ongoing investigation into his alleged ties with Russia – although their publication was required by law following the 1992 Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. Because I believe they show that Oswald was trained, nurtured and put in place by the Central Intelligence Agency.” Mr Stone, who wrote a book about the conspiracy theory that President Lyndon B Johnson, Mr Kennedy’s Vice President, was involved in the assassination, said he had not been given any indication as to Mr Trump’s intentions after he made his case for the documents’ release. He took it all in…I think he’s going to do the right thing.” Some Republican politicians had also pushed for the files to be released, including Representative Walter B Jones and Senator Charles E Grassley, who introduced resolutions asking Mr Trump to “reject any claims for the continued postponement.” Mr Kennedy’s assassination on 22 November 1963 rocked the world and speculation overwhether the hit by Lee Harvey Oswald was authorised by another party has never gone away. “But what the files are doing and why they're important to come out is they fill in the history of the case and show us how the FBI and CIA repeatedly hid the evidence.” Mr Posner said conspiracy theories about the CIA and mob working together to assassinate a head of state are true - but the target was the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, not Mr Kennedy - whose brother Bobby was also assassinated in 1968.