The United States Department of Justice is currently ordering a group of lawyers responsible for handling sensitive national security matters to urgently review the records of the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, which were to be declassified on Tuesday, March 18th.
Christopher Robinson, an official from the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, announced that each lawyer working in the Intelligence Office Action Group is required to review between 400 to 500 documents.
Robinson set a deadline for the completion of the review by Tuesday noon, which includes records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and “possible others.”
According to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), authorization must be sought from the court before surveilling foreign individuals within the United States. A spokesman from the Department of Justice stated, “No FISA authorization work will cease during the review process.”
Previously, Trump had ordered the release of around 80,000 pages of documents related to the Kennedy assassination, as well as government records related to former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassinations.
In January, he signed an executive order urging the FBI to search through thousands of records.
As part of the declassification review, FBI agents have already reviewed some of the documents, as mentioned by Robinson.
The Intelligence Office Action Group is responsible for preparing and submitting applications to the FISA court in order to collect communications of foreign individuals within the United States.
Former Department of Justice lawyers have stated that the decision to require all lawyers from the Intelligence Office Action Group to handle the declassification review is highly unusual and could disrupt legitimate national security work.
Both the Department of Justice and other federal agencies have reiterated that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was the work of a sole gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. However, current Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has persistently claimed, without evidence, that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved. The CIA has repeatedly denied these allegations.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also alleges that his father, Robert F. Kennedy, was killed by multiple gunmen, a claim contrary to the official narrative.
The declassification review comes after changes in personnel at the Department of Homeland Security. Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month that the head of the Intelligence Office and another senior official were suddenly reassigned to other positions. One source mentioned that the leadership at the National Security Division typically includes up to 12 lawyers, but it has now been reduced to around 3 lawyers.