JFK Disclosure Plan Lands on Trump's Desk
Without hullabaloo or detail, agencies meet a deadline in the Jan. 23 executive order
Late Friday afternoon, ABC News reported that a plan for release of the JFK assassination files reached President Donald J. Trump, meeting a deadline in compliance with his Executive Order 14176, entitled “Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
That decree holds that within 15 days from the date the order was signed, Jan. 23:
the Director of National Intelligence [DNI] and the Attorney General [AG] shall, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs [National Security Advisor] and the Counsel to the President, present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
As of this writing, JFK Facts knows no details of how release of the files would be implemented or how thoroughly. Such specifics could make or break the disclosure plan.
Among the DNI, AG, National Security Advisor and White House Counsel, one position listed in the executive order — DNI — is yet to be filled.
The full Senate has not yet confirmed President Trump’s nominee, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, although the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has voted to send her candidacy to the Senate floor next week.
Gabbard has spoken publicly in favor of government transparency and disclosure, if not specifically on the matter of the JFK assassination. She is known to have read a famous work arguing that President Kennedy’s murder was the result of a conspiracy, James Douglass’ “JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters” (2008).
Two positions not requiring Senate confirmation — National Security Advisor and White House Counsel — were filled by former Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) and former Trump 2024 General Counsel David Warrington, respectively, on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.
The Senate confirmed former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as AG on Feb. 5, two days before the deadline set by the executive order.
The views of Bondi, Waltz, and Warrington concerning the JFK assassination and the need for transparency remain unknown to JFK Facts.
The Acting DNI is Lora Shiao, a career counterterrorism official who served as Acting DNI for one day from Jan. 20-21, 2021, as the first Trump administration transitioned to Biden.
JFK Facts knows nothing of Shiao’s views on the need for transparency in the assassinations covered by E.O. 14176, either. Her web presence is minimal, although in May 2021 she gave an interview to the Intelligence & National Security Alliance:
JFK Facts will update readers on the disclosure plan’s details as they become available.
Awesome. Thank you.
We have been disappointed every time in the past, and now we have to rely on people whose views on this important issue are unknown.
This is America. We have to wonder how many of these people are susceptible to bribery and blackmail by the national security state.