JFK assassination files: CIA, FBI among agencies lobbying Trump to delay release of some files
There has been late lobbying by various agencies of the U.S. government asking President Trump to hold off on releasing some of the John F. Kennedy assassination documents, and the White House was reportedly receptive to some of those requests.
(Update at 7:42 p.m. — the files are now live online.)
The White House will release 2,800 of the JFK assassination documents Thursday, with the release of other redacted records postponed for 180 days, so that they can be reviewed, White House officials said during a conference call Thursday afternoon.
The requests – some of which were registered a couple of months ago and some more recently -- come from agencies throughout the government including the CIA and FBI.
Some of the worry seems to center around documents created in the 1990's, when the congressional committee was crafting the legislation setting Thursday as the release date.
Multiple officials at multiple agencies tells CBS News there is concern the documents may reveal sources and operations from the near past and include current people or operations. Of particular concern, according to officials, are names in the documents.
A spokesperson for the CIA told CBS News the agency welcomes the president's directive to further review the records to identify any additional information that can be released. The spokesman said every single one of the remaining roughly 18,000 CIA records will ultimately be released, with no document withheld in full. The CIA wants to protect the identity of CIA assets and current and former CIA officers, as well as intelligence methods and partnerships that are still relevant.
CBS News' Chip Reid interviewed JFK scholar Larry Sabato, at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, who said he had been told that "at least most of it will not be released Thursday because not just the CIA, but apparently other agencies, unnamed -- I assume the FBI is one -- are appealing."
Sabato says that the CIA wants some of the names in the documents redacted, and some of the paragraphs they say reveal the names of sources or methods used by the CIA.
CBS News' Chip Reid and Maggie Dore contributed to this report.