President Trump Refuses To Release The Drama He Promised About JFK Files
No one will remember in years to come where they were when they heard about the JFK assassination classified document dump of 2017.
In the end, what was supposed to be the final release of government secrets about the 1963 killing of President John F. Kennedy wasn’t quite the blockbuster splash that President Donald Trump had been promising.
In fact, a day of intrigue and behind-the-scenes maneuvering by US intelligence agencies is likely only to feed the notorious conspiracy theories that the release of the historical trove was designed to quell once and for all.
It’s 54 years since Kennedy died and a quarter century since Congress decreed Thursday as the day when all classified records related to the assassination should be thrown open to the public.
Trump, with an impresario’s flair, had been building it up for days, as though he was promoting one of his Miss Universe pageants rather than a fresh perspective on one of the most traumatic moments in US history.
At the center of his own self-directed drama, Trump, a noted peddler of conspiracy theories and who is prone to secrecy himself, especially over his refusal to release his tax returns, was going to strike a famous blow for transparency and blow the lid off everything the government was still hiding over what happened in Dallas on November 22,1963.
“The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow. So interesting!” Trump had tweeted on Wednesday.
Once the 2,800 documents finally hit the website of the National Archives at just after 7.30 p.m., there were some fascinating historical nuggets surrounding Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, his murderer Jack Ruby and even a tantalizing walk-on part by Marilyn Monroe.
But the bigger story lay in what is still missing, unknown and secret.
The big reveal didn’t live up to its billing because spy agency officials successfully pleaded with Trump to hold back 300 or so files, forcing him to set up yet another classified review process — this one lasting six months.
The drama around the release of the documents was like so much of Trump’s nine months in power, involving a big promise that he struggled to fulfill and a rush of last-minute chaos inside the White House.
There was also a glimpse of the tenacious bureaucratic blocking maneuvers favored by big centers of power in Washington — in this case the CIA and the FBI — that have made it so difficult for Trump to drain the swamp.
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