MFF to DOJ: Biden Doesn't Have 'Unfettered Discretion' Over JFK Files
MFF to DOJ: Biden Doesn't Have 'Unfettered Discretion' Over JFK Files
Mary Ferrell Foundation counters government in lawsuit over assassination records
The legal battle over still-secret JFK assassination files has been joined
On Tuesday, the Mary Ferrell Foundation, sponsor of the largest online collection of JFK assassination records, responded to the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss the foundation’s Oct. 2022 lawsuit, which challenges the Biden administration’s handling of thousands of still-secret CIA records related to the murder of President John F. Kennedy 60 years ago.
“Two Presidents have postponed the release of these decades-old assassination records four times,” declared attorneys Bill Simpich and Larry Schnapf in a 53-page brief. “This track record reinforces doubts that the President is willing to hold accountable the agencies cited in this brief to comply with the Act’s plain language requirements.
If the court adopts the cramped interpretation of the Act proffered by the Defendants, Plaintiffs and the American people will have no “enforceable” or “accountable” mechanism to assure full public disclosure.
The Biden administration contended in a motion filed last month that the foundation is asking the courts to “second-guess” the president’s “considered conclusions in the areas of foreign affairs, law enforcement and national security.”
A limited release of JFK files last December yielded at least one new revelation : the CIA’s Miami station conducted a “fairly massive” investigation of JFK’s assassination and never shared the results with the Warren Commission, the official inquiry which found no governmental wrongdoing in the death of the 35th president.
In fact, the Heath memo revealed suspicions of Cuban exile involvement in JFK’s murder were rife within the CIA at time when the White House, the FBI, and mainstream news organizations were insisting a “lone gunman” was responsible.
(For more on what the Heath Memo tells us about the causes of November 22, listen here.)
Judge Richard Seeborg will hear oral arguments in MFF vs. Biden in San Francisco federal court on April 27.
‘Denied in Full’
Among the most sensitive of the files not released under Biden’s December 15 order were dozens of documents about a secret CIA program, code named AMSPELL, that involved accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald three months before Kennedy was killed.
As I reported in an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in December, the CIA retains 44 documents about AMSPELL case officer George Joannides that have been “denied in full” to the public despite their relevance to the JFK story. These documents concern Joannides’ cover and intelligence methods in November 1963.
In a Dec. 2022 letter to President Biden, Judge John Tunheim former chair of the Assassination Records Review Board said the CIA had “deliberately misled” the ARRB about the Joannides file, which said “absolutely needs to be released in full.”
In talking points given to selected Washington reporters, the CIA said it is “false” to say the Agency is withholding Joannides files.
For continuing coverage of the JFK files lawsuit, and to support the Mary Ferrell Foundation, subscribe to JFK Facts today.
“… the President does not have unfettered discretion under the JFK Record Act. Given the limited discretion granted the President under the JFK Act, the Defendants’ case law is inapposite. Judicial review is appropriate and necessary to determine if the President has complied with the stringent commands of Congress.”
The Heath memo is quite a find. It shows the CIA, purveyors of assassinations the world over, didn’t buy the lone nut theory from the start. The agency assumed the JFKA required a coordinated, well-financed operation of men, guns and cars that the LN theorists always claimed was implausible.
Of course in CIA fashion, they release this file years after everyone who can verify the details or point to the results of the ‘massive’ internal investigation are long dead.
And the MSM ignores it all.
The subterfuge and coverup continues.
Another example of the real Joe Biden. Is it a surprise to anyone that he's a lackey for the national security state?