Trump Says He'll Allow Release of JFK Records

Historians and amateur sleuths hoping to see the last sealed records pertaining to the JFK assassination got some apparent good news on Saturday. President Trump tweeted that he will allow their release, though he left some ambiguity: "Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened," Trump wrote. As the Washington Post notes, that leaves open the possibility that Trump will change his mind before an Oct. 26 deadline, if intelligence agencies make a persuasive case to keep them sealed. Nor does Trump's tweet specify that he will release all of the records.

All of this pertains to thousands of documents about the 1963 assassination compiled by US intelligence agencies that remain under government wraps. The government stipulated 25 years ago that all would be made public by Oct. 26 of this year and that only the president would be able to rescind that order. A report in Politico earlier this week suggested that intelligence agencies are concerned about protecting reports that were compiled in, say, the 1990s. Not because they contain some bombshell about the assassination itself but because their release could expose agents who still might be operating, as well as general "spycraft" strategy. (More JFK assassination stories.)