Trump's Interim Grade on JFK Files Improves from D-plus to B-minus

What the president's executive order has — and has not — brought to light

After 47 days, President Donald Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order on JFK files was mostly a bust. Only a tranche of FBI files had been found, and they were not yet public. None of 15 potentially significant but redacted JFK files on a list I shared with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, chair of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, had been released. While Trump’s strong language in EO 14176 was welcome, implementation was lacking. I gave the president an interim grade of D-plus.

Ninety seven days later, the cause of full JFK disclosure has advanced considerably. More than 2,500 documents from 15 federal agencies or entities were released starting on March 18. JFK researchers immediately found revelatory material. Eight of the 15 documents on the list I gave to Luna became public. In a Capitol Hill hearing on April 1, I gave testimony to Luna’s task force about what the new documents tell us about CIA operations related to JFK’s assassination.