FBI uncovers thousands of secret JFK assassination files after Trump order - as task force head says she believes there were 'two shooters'

The FBI says it has found 2,400 lost files related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy.

The agency carried out a new record search after Donald Trump signed an executive order in January for all of the files related to the 1963 shooting to be declassified.

It comes as Florida representative Anna Paulina Luna, the head of the new Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, said she believes "two shooters" were involved in the assassination.

Ms Luna was supporting a conspiracy theory that contradicts the official account that lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was solely responsible for the killing.

The FBI said on Tuesday that the hundreds of newly inventoried and digitised records that have been unearthed were previously unrecognised as related to the Kennedy assassination case file.

It added the documents have been transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration for "inclusion in the ongoing declassification process".

The FBI did not say in its statement what kind of information the newly-discovered files contain.

Last week the Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent recommendations to Mr Trump on which classified documents he should release to the public about the assassination, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The office did not release details of the plan or say when the documents would be released.

John F Kennedy, commonly referred to as JFK, was shot dead while he travelled through Dallas, Texas, in a motorcade on 22 November 1963.

Oswald, a 24-year-old former marine, was charged with the killing the same day before he was shot dead himself by nightclub owner Jack Ruby two days later.

In 1964 an investigation into JFK's assassination concluded that Oswald acted alone and there was no evidence of a conspiracy.

Historians note that the findings of the Warren Commission were widely accepted by the public - but scepticism from conspiracy theorists in the years that followed led many to start doubting the official story.

Conspiracy theories include that there was more than one shooter, the CIA was behind it, and that the Italian-American mafia was responsible.

Referring to Warren Commission during a Capitol Hill news conference on Tuesday, Ms Luna said: "I can tell you, based on what I've been seeing so far, the initial hearing that was actually held here in Congress was actually faulty in the single-bullet theory.

"I believe that there were two shooters."

She also referenced a theory that the CIA may have been more aware of Oswald than it has previously disclosed.

Ms Luna continued: "We just want the truth - how much did the CIA know in advance?

"But also remember - when you only have certain information that's shared with the American people, that's when conspiracy theories happen.

"And it's in my opinion that conspiracy theories can be detrimental."

While the vast majority of the JFK assassination files - more than five million records - have been made public, researchers estimated 3,000 files haven't been released, either in whole or in part.

Read more:
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Mr Trump, who returned to the White House in January, had promised on the campaign trail to release documents about the shooting.

As part of the same executive order, Mr Trump also promised to release documents on the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr and Senator Robert Kennedy, both of whom were shot dead in 1968.

Mr Trump has allowed more time to come up with a plan for those releases.

His pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the son of Robert Kennedy and nephew of JFK, is one of those who believes the CIA was involved in his uncle's death.

The agency has described the allegation as baseless.

Documents may reveal details about one of the most significant moments in US history, but historians say they are unlikely to bolster any of the conspiracy theories surrounding JFK's death.

"I suspect that we won't get anything too dramatic in the releases, or anything that fundamentally overturns our understanding of what occurred in Dallas," said Fredrik Logevall, a Harvard history professor.

Files revealing that the CIA failed to share intelligence on Oswald with the FBI would be "a big story," said Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, which concludes that Oswald acted alone.

"The question for me is not whether the CIA was complicit, but whether the CIA was negligent," Mr Posner said.

(c) Sky News 2025: FBI uncovers thousands of secret JFK assassination files after Trump order - as task force head says she believes