The largest release of unredacted files to-date.
Photo: SBTG

What do the documents reveal?

JFK FILES RELEASED

Those anticipating a huge release of newly redacted documents on Wednesday morning about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy got at least some of what they were expecting, but it will take time to sort out the importance of the most recent information dump.

These famous documents were originally reviewed and released with redactions during the Assassination Records Review Board’s declassification process in the 1990s.

In 2017, a sunset clause of the JFK Records Act mandated that they all be released in full, absent a Presidential directive otherwise. Both President Trump and Biden presided over a period where, in stages, most of those documents were released in full but remained with blackouts.

Much, if not most, of the information has been released by prior administrations in at least partially redacted to protect names of CIA assets and other sensitive information.

However, as part of his campaign promise, President Trump’s new administration signalled the release would include a huge trove of unredacted records available for the first time.

These documents have now been released with the blackouts lifted.

Why was this part originally blacked out?
See full original page here.

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration says it has released about 63,000 pages across more than 2,100 PDF files, a stunning volume of information for historians and amateur researchers to comb through. Among the unanswered questions:

How much previously unreleased or unredacted information is contained in the documents? How long will it take for historians to assess the flood of files?

I remember, as a young Ethan, attempting to print out the then-redacted files and put them into folders – a project that only made it about three folders before realising the size of such a task.

For those of you, like young Ethan, who wish to embark on similar project – or perhaps just read the files for yourself – below is the best place to take a look and follow for developments:

BEST PLACE TO VIEW THEM

The National Archives has set up a page dedicated to the March 18, 2025, release where you can search through thousands of files. You can find the page on the National Archives’ website.

Three batches of documents have been released by the National Archives in PDF format as of 20-03-2025. NARA’s page, where they may be downloaded as PDF files, gives the following details about the three batches of releases:

March 18, 2025 – 7 PM EST Release: 32,000 pages (1,123 PDF files)
March 18, 2025 – 10:30 PM EST Release: 31,400 pages (1,059 PDF files)
March 20, 2025 – 9:30 PM EST Release: 13,700 pages (161 PDF files)

It is not known how many documents remain with redactions at present.

When releasing the documents, the Trump administration and National Archives did not unredact the files in a way that allows for keyword searching using OCR, or Optical Character Recognition. This has made things very tricky for anyone wishing to quickly search the files.

Because of this, I would recommend heading to alternative sources for the files.

The Mary Ferrell Foundation, which specialises in making historical documents publicly accessible, is working to fix the files in a way that does allow searching.

"I can't search these new JFK files!" I hear you cry. Alas, the National Archives/Team Trump failed to take the simple step of OCRing the released JFK files. But fear not fellow researchers, the Mary Ferrell Foundation is coming to your rescue… @InfoMferrell #JFKFilesRelease
— Jefferson Morley (@jeffersonmorley) March 19, 2025

“In coming days, you can escape the clunky NARA site and go over to http://MaryFerrell.org, the largest online archive of JFK records, to continue your research,” Jefferson Morley, who is the author of the widely read JFK Facts newsletter, said.

Speaking of the JFK Facts newsletter, this is also a good website to keep an eye on for any developing news stories that may come out of the file searching as time goes on.

Morley, the author of three books on President John F. Kennedy and his rocky relationship with the CIA, has been posting tidbits of new information he has gleaned from the documents.

Will the newly released documents bring any new revelations to light?

It remains to be seen.

Who do you think was responsible for the assassination of JFK?

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below!