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by dgfitz 504 days ago
Surely nobody sees this as a bad thing. It’s been a bit since these events happened.
8 comments

During his first term, Trump was the one who stopped all the records from being released automatically. This is his MO, to claim as victory something that would have happened without him opening his mouth in the first place.
This might make sense if the MLK and RFK assassinations weren't also being disclosed, and that without any act of congress.
I don’t get the downvotes; this is factually true. We don’t know what Pompeo told Trump in 2017, when the records would automatically release the remaining 3,648 by law, yet Trump blocked. Biden released 2,672 of those. Unless he finds a secret stash, Trump can’t beat those numbers now.
He was asked about this by Joe Rogan, his response at there is some concern that some of the people involved was still alive, but now he feels that doesn’t override the need of the families and American people to know.

This post is not political whether you believe or do not believe Trump is up to you.

But we already knew everything about her?
> This is his MO, to claim as victory something that would have happened without him opening his mouth in the first place

We used to call this confirmation bias....

Agreed. Trump should never have allowed the redaction of rhe JFK files in 2017 when he was legally bound to release them In the first place.
Nope, not a bad thing, but I'm still waiting on the sasquatch files.
While you wait check out "Saxsquatch" on YouTube, he's currently on a North American tour. I can't wait to see him!
You’ll get those when they release the UFOs.
As another commenter pointed out, this is just candy to act as a distraction. Trump (and Musk) want people talking about something relatively unimportant like this, and not all the messed up stuff they're doing to gut the executive branch.
Musk and co held an X space last night to publicly discuss their gutting of USAID and more. They have actively publicized DOGE. The idea that this is a smokescreen is totally unfounded.

Have you considered that releasing these files is just fulfilling a campaign promise? Or that if a non-Trump admin had done this it would've been celebrated?

A law signed during the presidency of George H. W. Bush ordered the declassification of all records relating to the assassination of President Kennedy in October 2017. When this time arrived during Donald Trump's first presidency, several documents were declassified; however, others remained classified. In 2021 President Joe Biden signed a presidential memorandum which created deadlines for more declassifications of documents about the assassination, which led to over 13,000 documents being released.
Sounds good to me too. Wasn't making a comparison between administrations, just pointing out that Trump, Musk, and co do not appear to be hiding any of their activities. The idea that releasing documents is a smokescreen makes no sense when this administration is constantly announcing everything they're working on.
just pointing out that Bush, Obama, Biden and co do not appear to be hiding any of their activities
I think its good, but humorously waiting for the conspiracists to shift the goal posts so we can spend the next 50 years talking about the "documents the fed shredded"
Reminds me of the flat earth experiments to prove the definitive truth that prove the earth is spherical and thus prove that the deep state manipulated the experiment which acts only to strengthen their resolve to get to the "real" truth.
It got better recently if you've seen the fall out from the trip to the Antartic; the flerfs completely turned on their top-tier streamers when they observed that the sun does in fact stay in the sky 24hrs a day: green screen, video walls, planted gov agents, sound stages, claims of "see i always said they'd actually be a shill"

Very funny watching flerfs realize other flerfs arent actually willing to look at real evidence without making it a conspiracy.

Is it really shifting the goal posts if we have evidence it really happens?
You mean the fact that shredding as an action exists? Or specifically that the fed shredded JFK docs?

Its shifting the goal posts when the call has to been release all the documents, and when they do just that, saying it wasnt in fact all the documents...it would be impossible to have evidence of it, or verify it. Just unsubstantiated claims, but thats enough for some

I can think of a few agencies that might be sweating. Or maybe it'll come out that it really was just a random nutjob. Or they'll redact something and conspiracy theorists will forever say that the crucial piece of evidence is contained under the last remaining Sharpie ink
Bullseye. That's exactly what will happen. They have much more to gain by keeping some of the mystery. If they hand out a black and white explanation they have 1 less leverage to manipulate the mass.
We know who it was We have known for decades

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald

Just because the government messed up the first investigation in a rush doesn't change the fact that they came to the correct conclusion as the following decades has shown. It's possible there's something embarrassing to the fbi in those files but it wouldn't be assassination of prominent figures

Heck, it doesn't matter even if there are zero redactions. I saw a good cartoon along these lines: Trump agrees with the need to release any and all info about the JFK assassinations, which shows that all the evidence points to Oswald being the lone killer. The conspiracy theorist responds "This goes deeper than we thought..."

I'm all for releasing all the known evidence about the case, but a large swath of people will never be satisfied unless they hear exactly what they want to hear. There are still a sizable number of people who think the Moon landings were faked, despite all evidence to the contrary.

We can also just say flat earthers exist. That equally proves the point.
I am sure it makes some TLA look bad. I fully expect to not have everything released.
It depends on how bad it is. For example, if it turned out that a Secret Service officer fired a stray round that hit the President then I don't think we're going to see that made public ever.
I love that one, but IIRC all the serious inquiries into it did not deem it credible. Great out-of-the-box thinking though!
I'm quite sure that's why Trump is ordering this release.

He's explicitly at war with the deep state and existing institutions. Trying to tear them down and seize power. If these files make the FBI and/or other TLA(s) look bad, further public eroding trust and support, he wins.

The Republicans are also starting to win back non-white voters. Shedding light on the MLK assassination certainly does not hurt that effort.

The FBI.

The FBI was out for MLK.

In his first term Trump liked the FBI so he allowed them to redact the JFK files he was legally supposed to release to the public.

But in 2025 they’re his bogey man so releasing it so Kash Patel has an even easier time remolding it in his image makes a lot of sense.

If the FBI had really done it, I doubt they would have left classified records saying they had. Most likely, either the records would have been destroyed long ago, or they never would have created any in the first place

Other possibility: they really didn’t do it, but there’s some classified record which sure makes it sound like they did. e.g. some record of J. Edgar Hoover joking about doing it

If the FBI did it off the record then technically it's not the FBI it's a rogue actor or cell that happens to work for the government

If a bus driver for a federal prison snapped and shot him we could say the same thing.

Where is the line between agency and private party if it's not drawn on the record?

I think there’s a big difference between “random FBI field agent decides to murder someone” and “FBI director asks his deputy to murder someone”. Attributing the murder to the FBI as an institution makes a lot more sense in the second case than in the first
Personally, I agree with you. We have semantic problem.

*If the director asked, and we know that he asked, then it is on the record.

*If the director asked off the record, then it's called classified.

*If there is a conviction then it was a rogue cell.

The agency is clear in all cases whether we like it or not. Same as a corporation, but worse.

Yeah, I mean. Given what is known about the FBI and MLK how much worse could it get?

Fun fact: there is a statue of MLK at the FBI academy in Quantico.

I don't think the majority of the public is aware of the extremely devious stuff the FBI has done w.r.t. civil rights leaders etc.

Even if nothing substantively new is released it gives him a chance to rant about the FBI as part of his mission to seize power and discredit the "deep state" while cosplaying as a supporter of truth, justice, people of color, etc.

does the FBI have anything memorializing Ernest Hemmingway as well? That'd certainly be ironic.
Mossad and CIA might have a different take … some people say.
let’s get this party started