Bombshells in new JFK assassination files

The new trove of top secret files released on the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy left experts trawling for new clues and Donald Trump's own staff scrambling. 

The release early Tuesday evening included 2,182 PDF documents totaling 63,400 pages on the National Archives website more than 60 years after the president was shot and killed in Dallas.

It included typewritten reports and handwritten notes spanning decades, including details of a top CIA agent who claimed the deep state was responsible, Lee Harvey Oswald being a 'poor shot' and that Secret Service had been warned Kennedy would be killed in August, three months before the murder.

The rollout of the files stunned Trump's national security team, who spent 24 hours racing to assess security hazards ahead of publication.

When the files were released at around 7pm, it sparked widespread backlash, from liberals claiming it was just a repeat of a similar drop by Joe Biden years ago, to MAGA fans angered that the pages still contained redactions and left questions, leading experts to describe the files as 'impenetrable.'

Experts have warned as they sift through the information that they do not expect the release to overturn the long understanding of what happened or earth-shattering reveals.

The document batch did not include annotations, what agency documents originated from, how they were linked together or whether they were found more credible than others to the investigation. 

Its publication represents the fulfillment of a campaign promise from Trump, who had threatened to get the files out dating back to his first term in office. 

Still, those digging through the thousands of pages have uncovered some intriguing details. 

One document was a memo released on a passage from the left wing political magazine Ramparts from June 1967 about intelligence agent, CIA informant and former US Army Captain John Garrett Underhill Jr. 

'The day after the assassination, Gary Underhill left Washington in a hurry. Late in the evening he showed up at the home of a friend in New Jersey He was very agitated,' the passage starts.

'A small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination, he confided, and he was afraid for his life and probably would have to leave the country. Less than six months later Underhill was found shot to death in his Washington apartment. The coroner ruled it a suicide,' the passage continued.

It noted that he was on 'intimate terms with a number of high-ranking CIA officials. 

The passage was shared numerous times by conservatives on social media on Tuesday night. But others dismissed it, pointed out the magazine passage had been publicly available and discussed for decades. 

Another document making the rounds in MAGA world Tuesday night after the release focused on Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. 

One line in the document stated that KGB watched Oswald closely while he was in the USSR. But files indicated that Oswald was a poor shot when he tried target filing in the USSR.'

Another detail released was a letter sent by a man named Sergyj Czornonoh in 1978 to the British Embassy. 

He claimed that he was detained in London on July 18, 1963 and questioned by authorities.

Czornonoh said that he told them about Lee Harvey Oswald, saying he planned to kill the president.

He added that he warned American Vice Consul Tom Blackshear of the plans of Oswald, who trying to defect to Russia. 

While Trump's team was working on getting the records out since the president returned to the White House in January, those plans were put into overdrive on Monday.

The president said during a media event at the Kennedy Center that the files were all going to be released on Tuesday. 

National security analysts were scrambling to make sure there were no hazards in what they were about to publish with a supercharged deadline. 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe had wanted to have everyone prepped on what was in the documents so that they wouldn't be caught off guard, the New York Times reports. 

Source: Daily Mail