Judicial Watch: National Archives Tells Court It Can’t Predict When JFK Assassination Records will be Released

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that in a report to the court in its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) stated it “cannot fully predict” when records about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy will be released. The National Archives estimates that there are “over six million pages” of responsive records.

Judicial Watch filed the February 2025 lawsuit after the National Archives failed to respond to a January 20, 2025, FOIA request (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. National Archives and Records Administration (1:25-cv-00577)). Judicial Watch sued 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.

The National Archives states in a “joint status report” to the court:

[National Archives] cannot fully predict when records responsive to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request will be released online because of the volume of material, the complexity of the digitization process, and the remaining restrictions on access such as grand jury and court sealed information, taxpayer information protected by 26 U.S.C. § 6103, deeded materials, and intellectual property. [National Archives] will continue to work diligently to process [Judicial Watch’s] request and post records online on a rolling basis.

Additionally, fulfilling [Judicial Watch’s] request for records of the ARRB [Assassination Records Review Board] itself will be labor intensive. The [Assassination Records Review Board] records are part of the JFK Collection but do not meet the definition of an “assassination record” within the statute…. These records, which have not previously been fully reviewed for public release, must be digitized and reviewed line-by-line for FOIA exemptions.

Judicial Watch and the National Archives propose updating the court as to the status of the processing of records on or before July 28, 2025.

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 National Archives claims that since January 23, 2025, it has posted approximately 80,000 pages of responsive records online.

“The National Archives needs speed up the release of the Kennedy records! At this rate, it will be decades before the files even partly are made available to the American people,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

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

In January 2024, a FOIA lawsuit uncovered records from the National 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 National 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 National 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. Click here or here to review the records.

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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