Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone has praised former President Donald Trump for his decision to declassify the remaining top-secret files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, though he also voiced some concerns.
Stone, best known for his 1991 film JFK, which explores the circumstances surrounding Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, expressed his approval of Trump’s move to release the last 3 percent of the approximately 5 million government files still held by the National Archives and Records Administration. This decision also covers the remaining files on the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter, Stone wrote: “President Trump deserves praise for yesterday’s executive order declassifying the still closed records in government files on the assassination of John Kennedy, an event which occurred 61 years ago.” He further emphasized that these files should have been released in 2017, as required by law, and credited Trump for going beyond Kennedy’s assassination by ordering the release of the files regarding the RFK and MLK killings.
However, Stone acknowledged that while these files might not contain smoking-gun evidence pointing to a clear culprit, they will likely contribute valuable details that could shed more light on the events surrounding the deaths of these prominent figures. “No one expects there to be a smoking gun ‘he did it’ document in those files. But from what previous writers understand, there will be information that will contribute to a more informed mosaic of what happened in those cases,” he said.
Stone also called for proper oversight to ensure the documents are fully released and unredacted. He referenced Congressmen Steve Cohen, David Schweikert, and Tim Burchett, who have advocated for a review board, similar to the previous JFK Assassination Records Review Board, to ensure all relevant records are released and investigated.
Trump’s decision to release the remaining files follows a previous commitment he made during his campaign. Under the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, the U.S. government was required to release all documents related to Kennedy’s assassination by 2017, but Trump had blocked some files from being made public. He has now ordered the director of national intelligence and attorney general to devise a plan to release the remaining files, with the JFK documents to be released in the next 15 days, and the RFK and MLK documents within 45 days.
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and the official investigation concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and communist sympathizer, acted alone. However, the findings have been met with widespread skepticism and conspiracy theories over the years.