Vanity Fair Goes In-Depth with Morley on JFK Files, Trump's Executive Order
Venerable mag talks with Jefferson Morley of JFK Facts about what's next, the CIA's tracking of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the continued resonance of the JFK case
This week JFK Facts Editor Jefferson Morley spoke with Vanity Fair’s James Robenalt to discuss the state of play in the JFK assassination inquiry in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order to declassify remaining government files.
Morley provided an overview on what has been learned in the 60-plus years since the event, especially in the five years since the National Archives has been releasing previously withheld documents. Among the topics Morley addressed: The CIA’s tracking of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in the years leading up to the ambush in Dallas:
"Look at how they collected information on Oswald in his short life; he only lived to be 24. Yet six CIA code-named, intelligence-collection operations tracked him. The first one came right after he moved to the Soviet Union in 1959. [The CIA started] reading his mail. Over the next four years, five more CIA operations come to touch on Oswald.”
After Trump’s executive order, the FBI announced that it had uncovered 2,400 documents related to the tragic event that had not previously been shared with either the public or with any of the official investigative bodies over the decades. Following that surprise disclosure, on Tuesday the House Oversight Committee announced a new task force, to be led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), aimed at increasing transparency with issues related to the assassination of not only JFK, but also the killings of his brother Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Vanity Fair’s Robenalt, it should be noted, was instrumental in bringing the story of Secret Service agent James Landis to the public. In 2023, Landis revealed that on Nov. 22, 1963, while the mortally wounded president was in Trauma Room One at Parkland Hospital, he had found a pristine bullet in the limousine seat where Kennedy had sat, which he then placed on the foot of the president’s gurney.
This disclosure threw a wrench into the Single Bullet Theory, which posited that one bullet passed through Kennedy and then entered Texas Gov. John Connally, causing multiple wounds while hitting multiple bones … yet emerged essentially unscathed. The theory was a linchpin in the Warren Commission’s 1964 finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin.
Robenalt noted that since 1992, “Morley has been leading the charge for full release of the JFK files.” He also credited the “authoritative Mary Ferrell Foundation — dedicated to declassifying memoranda from these three national tragedies” and its “in-depth accounting of what we currently know about this material.”
The foundation, which houses the largest online database of all documents related to the JFK assassination, is an indispensable tool for researchers and citizens alike.
Robenalt concluded his story with a question that led Morley to address the continued importance and resonance of JFK’s assassination:
“Because if you understand that event, you understand so much more about the world, the power-political world from which it came. And we’ve always had this confusion, this blind spot at the heart of our own history, our own sense of history was like, “What was that?” And because the government has no credible explanation and the whole thing is surrounded by mad conspiracy theories and disinformation and stupid apologetics, it’s a sore point.”
Some further thoughts from another historian who has specialized in the case:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-156137275
[Opening extract}
Trump and the JFK Files:
The Meaning of his Executive Order
James Anthony DiEugenio
Jan 30, 2025
On January 23rd, President Donald Trump came forward and finally made good on a promise he made many years ago, back in 2017. At that time he said he was looking forward to declassifying the last of the classified John F. Kennedy assassination documents. And, in fact, by law that is what he should have done. Because the originating legislation, the John F. Kennedy Records Collection Act, stated that all records that had been deferred should be declassified by October 2017. The only person who could stop it was the president.
Therefore, everyone expected this to happen and the media even picked up on the story. But Trump was visited by the CIA and FBI on that day. It was Mike Pompeo of the former that carried the water and put out the fire in Trump. Trump now gave the agencies a six month window to do what he should have done on that day. When that extension expired, incredibly, he then gave them another three years to do the job.
The far window of that 3 year time line leaked over into the Joe Biden presidency. As Andrew Iler has proven, Biden was even worse than Trump on this issue. Not only did he release less documents, he actually denuded the JFK Act. He more or less restored the process to something like the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) hearings. (See the Andrew Iler/Mark Adamcyk story of July 21, 2023 at Kennedys and King). Yet, the whole point of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) was that it switched the FOIA burden of proof. Now the agency had to show why a document should not be declassified. With the document in the open, right in front of all parties.
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And here is the the first of six parts, this is very useful especially for those new to the sprawling triple homicides under discussion - JFK, Patrolman Jefferson Davis Tippit, and Lee Harvey Oswald, all three within less than 48 hours in Dallas, Texas, November 22-24, 1963.
https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/part-1-of-6-no-motive-plus-the-silenced-witnesses
“Because if you understand that event, you understand so much more about the world, the power-political world from which it came. And we’ve always had this confusion, this blind spot at the heart of our own history, our own sense of history was like, “What was that?” And because the government has no credible explanation and the whole thing is surrounded by mad conspiracy theories and disinformation and stupid apologetics, it’s a sore point.”
Jeff’s summary hits the nail exactly on the head. For so many of the investigators this truth telling (hopefully) comes late. For the rest of us, these are exciting times!