Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, known for his 1991 film “JFK,” which depicted the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as the result of a concealed governmental conspiracy, called for a new congressional inquiry into the incident during a hearing that explored various conspiracy theories surrounding it.
The unrestrained hearing conducted by the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets featured airing of partisan grievances and came after last month’s release of thousands of pages of government documents pertaining to the assassination. The Republican chair of the task force initiated the session by challenging the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he lethally shot Kennedy as his motorcade concluded its route in downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Experts assert that the documents ordered for release by President Donald Trump did not undermine the conclusion that a lone gunman was responsible for Kennedy’s death. A review by CBS News indicated that the declassified documents did not reveal any significant new details about the assassination. Many of the records had previously been available but featured newly unredacted elements, such as Social Security numbers, leading to frustration among individuals whose private information was made public.
Stone’s “JFK” received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and won two awards. It earned over $200 million at the box office but faced ongoing scrutiny regarding its historical accuracy. Stone informed the committee that he believes years of delays in releasing unredacted records have obstructed “clarity” concerning who was responsible for JFK’s assassination.
He further suggested that a new investigation, “free from all political bias,” should commence “at the scene of the crime” and re-evaluate all evidence from the assassination day. Historians generally agree that there is substantial evidence indicating that Oswald, a 24-year-old former Marine, acted independently in Kennedy’s murder.
“Can we return to a world where we can trust our government to be honest with us, the people for whom this government exists?” Stone expressed. “This is our democracy. This is our presidency. It is ours.”
The task force’s chair, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna from Florida, asserted that the federal government under prior administrations had engaged in “stonewalling.”
A witness called by the Democrats criticized the Trump administration’s management of the recent JFK document release. John Davisson, senior counsel for the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, described it as “hurried” and claimed that the National Archives and Records Administration “simply ignored” privacy protection procedures.
Democratic members of the task force responded to his remarks by critiquing the Trump administration on various issues.
“What strikes me as amusing about this hearing is that the Republicans are focused on rehashing whether CIA agents were dishonest 60 years ago,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whose Texas district encompasses part of Dallas.
Crockett suggested that Congress ought to investigate further revelations about high national security officials discussing sensitive attack plans over a messaging app, which inadvertently included a journalist in the group chat.
The last formal congressional investigation into Kennedy’s assassination extended over three years and concluded in 1978 when a House committee issued a report stating that the Soviet Union, Cuba, organized crime, the CIA, and the FBI were not involved, but that Kennedy “was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” A Senate committee in 1976 declared it had not found sufficient evidence “to justify a conclusion that there was a conspiracy.”
The Warren Commission, established by Kennedy’s successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, determined that Oswald fired at Kennedy’s motorcade from a sniper’s position on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, where Oswald was employed. Oswald was arrested within 90 minutes, and two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer broadcast live on television.
For Tuesday’s hearing, the task force also invited Jefferson Morley and James DiEugenio, authors advocating for conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination. Morley serves as the editor of the JFK Facts blog and vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which is a repository for files related to the assassination.
Shortly after assuming office in January, Mr. Trump executed an order to initiate a process to declassify and release all remaining documents related to Kennedy’s assassination as well as the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The newly released documents concerning JFK’s assassination are now available on a portal managed by the National Archives, accessible here.
