‘Anybody waiting for a smoking gun…’ — experts on Donald Trump’s vow to unveil John F Kennedy assassination records

President-elect Donald Trump vowed to declassify all of the government records that are left to be unveiled in connection with the assassination of President John F Kennedy if he returned to power. Conspiracy theories continue to swirl around the assassination of the 35th president of the United States, even after 60 years.

It is important to find out why conspiracy theories still persist about the assassination after six decades. John F Kennedy was fatally shot on November 22, 1963, while passing through Dealey Plaza in Dallas.

Some classified documents were withheld during Donald Trump’s first term following appeals from the CIA and FBI, even though he had made a similar pledge. A few thousand of the millions of governmental records are still away from the public eye. The documents weren’t declassified as they were believed to cause potential harm to national security. Meanwhile, files continued to be released during President Joe Biden’s administration, but some still remain unseen.

The records that are left to be revealed will possibly not provide any earth-shattering revelations, AP reported citing those who have studied the records released so far. “Anybody waiting for a smoking gun that’s going to turn this case upside down will be sorely disappointed,” said author of Case Closed Gerald Posner. According to the biography, assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

He added, “If you have been following it, as I have and others have, you sort of are zeroed in on the pages you think might provide some additional information for history.”

According to Posner, there are about 500 documents that have been completely withheld which include Oswald’s and Ruby’s tax returns. The National Archives on its website said that these files weren’t subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement.

The Warren Commission concluded that there was no evidence of a conspiracy and Oswald acted alone, a year after the assassination. The Commission was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson but alternative theories continue to do the rounds over the decades.