Former President Donald Trump revealed Friday that he did not completely declassify files connected to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy in his previous term due to requests from “well-meaning” people.
Trump promised to declassify the remaining files if he is reelected during a May 2023 interview with The Messenger. Trump named former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as one of those who counseled him against fully releasing all the documents at the time.
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“I opened them up partially. I was met with — from good people, I mean, you know, look at me, good people, people that were well-meaning, Mike Pompeo was one of them, he’s a good person. Uh, they called me they said ‘Sir, would rather, have you not.’ After — and I did open them, but I was asked by some people not to open them,” Trump told Rogan.
“There’s a Martin Luther King file too by the way that they’d like to see, I don’t know if you know but there is that, but JFK in particular,” Trump continued. “So they call me, a lot of good people call me, people that I, you know, that you would find reasonable people and they asked me not to do it so I said, well, we’ll close it for another time. But if I win, I’m going to open them up.”
Trump declassified over 2,800 documents in 2017 relating to the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination. President Joe Biden released additional documents in 2021 and 2022, but critics accused Biden of not being fully transparent.
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The National Archives released additional documents on June 30, 2023.
“Why didn’t you open it up the first time?” Rogan asked. “What was the hesitation?”
“Addresses, people that are still living, there are people that are affected, um and there could be some national security reason that for you know that I don’t have to necessarily know about, but some very good talented people asked me not to do it,” Trump explained. “I opened it up and then they said would it be possible for us to do that a different day?”
Trump said he would not hesitate to declassify the documents if returned to office in the Nov. 5 general election.
“It’s a cleansing, you know, it’s really a cleansing, so I’m going to do it,” Trump told Rogan. “I’m going to do it immediately, almost immediately, upon entering office.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.