21 October, 2017|Jim Lesar, President of the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC), issued the following statement:
The AARC congratulates President Donald J. Trump on announcing in a tweet today that as President he will allow the release of JFK-assassination records to go forward as provided by the JFK Act which Congress unanimously passed in 1992. President Trump’s decision is correct, and it rightly attributes the prolonged blockage to Executive Branch agencies, particularly the CIA, when Congress mandated such information to be released as promptly as possible.
While President Trump’s tweet contains a possible face-saving out, conditioning such release on the “receipt of further information,” Lesar pointed out that these agencies and the National Archives have had 25 years to produce such information, they have not done so. Post hoc justifications to further delay release are not warranted in light of the clear congressional mandate requiring full disclosure by October 26, 2017. Lesar noted that the release has the support of both political parties, as both Sen. Charles Grassley and Sen. Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee leaders, have introduced legislation endorsing release of the records.