Judicial Watch Sues National Archives for JFK Assassination Records

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for records about  the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. National Archives and Records Administration (1:25-cv-00577)).

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit after the National Archives failed to respond to a January 20, 2025, FOIA request for:

All previously unreleased records in the possession of the National Archives and Records Administration regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This request includes, but is not limited to, all records transferred to NARA by the Assassination Records Review Board.

On January 19, 2025, then President-Elect Donald Trump announced his intention to make public the “remaining records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.” On January 23, an executive order was issued to that effect:

More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Federal Government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events. Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay.

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 required all records related to the assassination of President Kennedy to be publicly disclosed in full by October 26, 2017, unless the President certifies that: (i) continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations; and (ii) the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

“Despite overwhelming public interest, many records about the JFK assassination remain secret,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These records can and should be released under FOIA, so that the American people are assured the Deep State isn’t playing games and ignoring President Trump’s transparency orders.”

Judicial Watch has several FOIA cases pending against the National Archives.

In January 2024, a FOIA lawsuit uncovered records from the Archives that showed then-Vice President Joe Biden’s use of an email alias to correspond with family members, including son Hunter and brother James; and that Joe Biden signed off on the cessation of Secret Service protection for Hunter Biden and Beau Biden’s daughter Natalie during an August 2016 trip to Kosovo.

In August 2023, Judicial Watch sued the Archives for records of its role in President Trump’s White House records controversy; whether it offered Trump a secure storage location other than the National Archives; and if the Archives consulted with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding the classification or declassification procedures of any of the alleged classified documents found at Trump’s Florida residence.

In August 2022, Judicial Watch uncovered that, as of March 31, the Archives had released only 1,276 pages of over 8,000 records about the unprecedented document dispute and raid on the home of former President Trump.

In October 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Barak Obama Presidential Library for Obama White House records about the 2016 “Russia Collusion Hoax.” The records, which by law were not available under FOIA until five years after President Obama left office, are held at the library, which is part of the National Archives system.

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