A reporter from Time magazine asked me this week if I thought the Trump administration would be amenable to full JFK disclosure in October 2017. I said, “Just maybe.”
Some caveats are necessary. We really don’t have much idea how the Trump presidency is going to work, at least not compared to any recent president. Trump himself doesn’t seem to have a clear plan, and on relevant policy issues, like governmental secrecy, he has no fixed policy positions.
The political reality is this: If Trump wants to be seen as the president who ended government’s ongoing, fifty three year old cover-up of relevant JFK files, he has a golden opportunity.
What will President Trump do come October 26, 2017 when all of the government’s remaining JFK files are due, by law, to be made public?
He will presumably rely on the advice of his White House Counsel Donald McGahn, a veteran Washington operator known for hardball money politics. McGahn’s views on governmental secrecy are unknown to me. (If you know otherwise, drop me a line.)
Trump will likely face conflicting pressures. Will he succumb to pressure from the CIA and other agencies to continue the cover-up? Or will he order full JFK disclosure as mandated by law?
I hope for the latter. I would not be surprised by the former.
The 35th and 45th presidents
Trump’s views on the JFK story are contradictory. He said that Oswald acted alone, a debatable proposition. He also said that Oswald acted in concert with Rafael Cruz, father of Senator Ted Cruz, a false and baseless smear.
Trump, as a master manipulator of public opinion, knows the potency of the JFK story in the American imagination. He could have said that Rafael Cruz was seen at Roswell, or that he was spotted with Elvis, or that he was part of the 9/11 inside job. Trump didn’t do any of that. To make the smear stick–and to attract the flies of cable news and social media–Trump invoked JFK’s assassination.
Roger Stone, a sometime adviser to Trump and advocate of the “LBJ did it” conspiracy theory, favors full JFK disclosure, like two dozen JFK authors and investigators. He told me so himself in a recent email.
But when Miami talk radio host Fernand Amandi asked Stone last week if he would recommend full JFK disclosure to the president-elect, Stone hedged. He knows–as should the rest of us–that Trump is going to do what’s best for Trump.
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From a 5-Star Amazon review of Jefferson Morley’s
CIA and JFK: The Secret Assassination Files
“Can’t imagine a more meticulous take down of the CIA’s decades-long subterfuge surrounding the assassination.”
CIA and JFK: The Secret Assassination Files, provides the fullest account of the role of CIA operations officers in the events leading to the death of JFK.
Another five-star Amazon review:
“Highly recommended to all readers wanting to learn the truth on matters that the Government still fights to keep secret, some 53 years after the tragic event.”
CIA and JFK: The Secret Assassination Files