(NewsNation) — Nearly 60 years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the Biden administration has completed a review of classified documents about his murder. But thousands of documents remain sealed.
More than 12,000 documents were released last year with no major bombshells uncovered, but nearly 5,000 documents are still under wraps.
The Biden administration says it is necessary to keep some information classified as to protect “an unidentifiable harm” to military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
Of the nearly 5,000 documents under wraps, some 2,000 remain partially or fully withheld by the administration. About 2,500 remain withheld for reasons outside the President’s purview.
Some 13,000 documents were made public in December. But those long looking for answers about JFK’s assassination were left wondering what was inside the remaining pages, and how much the government may have known about Lee Harvey Oswald prior to JFK’s death.
At the time, Biden did order the remaining records to be publicly released on June 30, unless they met what they called “narrow exceptions.”
Now, the administration says Biden supports disclosing all information in the records concerning the assassination.
“Under President Biden’s leadership agencies have fully declassified over 16,000 records since 2021. This action reflects his instruction, that all information related to President Kennedy’s assassination should be released except when the strongest possible reasons, counsel otherwise. As a result, over 99% of the records in the collection are now publicly available at the National Archives,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Biden’s final certification dropped just before the long July 4 holiday weekend and didn’t draw much attention, leaving researchers, historians and those watching this story for decades wondering what additional information is out there.