Originally published on 3/3/25

In January 2025, President Donald J. Trump announced that he would be releasing John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) assassination files on March 18, 2025, thanks to Executive Order 14176.  Following this, Oliver Stone, the director of the 1991 JFK movie, reviewed the documents and discuss them in front of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. He even urged them to reopen the case. Below, we have gathered what you need to know about the files, what Stone talked about and where you can read the files for free. Scroll on for more.

What to know about the JFK files 

The JFK files consist of a collection of over six million documents, photos, audio recordings, artifacts and more that are in some way related to the president’s assassination. \

“In an effort to maximize transparency, these records were released without redactions and some of these records contain the personal identification information of living individuals,” The National Archives wrote on their website the day they were released. 

They also shared that “The National Archives and Records Administration and the Social Security Administration are working closely together to protect the individuals who may be affected from their information being exploited. NARA has begun the process of identifying and will be contacting individuals whose personal identification information are included in the records.” 

Currently, nothing major has been discovered in the documents as most of them focus on Lee Harvey Oswald—the man convicted of murdering JFK in Dallas on November 22, 1963. 

Oliver Stone urges for a new congressional investigation into the case

On Tuesday, April 1, 2025, director Oliver Stone appeared in front of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. He asked them to reopen the JFK assassination case, saying that he believed some of the conspiracy theories surrounding it could potentially be true, especially in regards to whether the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved. 

“I ask the committee to reopen what the Warren Commission failed miserably to complete. I ask you, in good faith, outside all political considerations, to reinvestigate the assassination of this President Kennedy, from the scene of the crime to the courtroom,” Stone said, per ABC.  “Let us reinvestigate the fingerprints of intelligence all over Lee Harvey Oswald from 1959 to 1960, his violent death in 1963 and most importantly this CIA, whose muddy footprints are all over.”

Fans of the director will remember that his JFK film featured the New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) reopening the case after discovering evidence suggesting that not everything is as it seems. The film was nominated for eight Oscars. 

As of publication, there is no word on if Congress will reopen the case. 

The Kennedy family reacts to the documents 

Following the announcement that the documents would be released, JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg took to X to share that “The Trump administration did not give anyone in President Kennedy’s family a heads-up about the release. A total surprise, and not a shocker !! But @RobertKennedyJr definitely knew.” 

United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. is JFK’s nephew and has been known to clash with his cousin Schlossberg from time to time on topics like politics and family affairs. 

“It’s incomprehensible to me that someone who is willing to exploit his own painful family tragedies for publicity would be put in charge of America’s life and death situations,” Schlossberg said, per PEOPLE. “Unlike Bobby, I try not to speak for my father, but I am certain that he and my uncle Bobby, who gave their lives in public service to this country, and my uncle Teddy, who devoted his long Senate career to the cause of improving health care, would be disgusted.”

Where can you read the JFK files? 

The JFK files can be read on the National Archives’s website here.

Link to original: https://www.womansworld.com/entertainment/news/jfk-files-spark-oliver-stones-call-to-reopen-the-case