CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – New batches of documents related to the John F. Kennedy assassination have been released, but many are still redacted. A UVA expert says what’s hidden could be just as important as what’s revealed.
“There’s a legitimate question to be raised why were they keeping all this secret?” said Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics.
Over 60 years after the assassination, President Donald Trump ordered the release of some declassified documents, and new details are coming to light.
Sabato and his team are digging through tens of thousands of pages and he says what they’ve found so far is alarming.
“Our government participated in activities that are thoroughly embarrassing to us as a country,” Sabato said. “Activities that I hope we wouldn’t do today, though sometimes I wonder.”
Activities like widespread illegal surveillance, mail tampering and keeping these records under wraps.
Sabato says Trump promised full transparency. But after searching through the documents, a lot is still redacted.
“These files aren’t searchable, they’re copies of copies of carbon copies,” Sabato said. “They’re difficult to read. You have to go back to whatever original pieces of the document we have to figure out what was unredacted.”
Sabato says it will take him and his team months to get through them.
“This was about maintaining the image of the CIA, of the FBI, and there are a lot more pages to come out concerning the FBI that haven’t even been released yet,” Sabato said.
On the Center for Politics’ website, Sabato says the conclusion stands that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman who killed JFK. To read more about what he and his experts have found, click here.
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