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National Archives Release Some Long-Secret JFK Files

The National Archives has released some of the long-secret records relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

President Donald Trump blocked the release of others, bending to CIA and FBI appeals. He placed those files under a six-month review while letting the 2,800 others come out Thursday, racing a deadline to honor a law mandating their release.

In a statement Thursday evening, the Central Intelligence Agency said none of the 18,000 remaining records will be withheld in full and that the redacted — or blacked out — parts of these remaining records represent less than 1 percent of the total CIA information in the assassination-related documents.

The CIA says the redactions were made to protect information that, if released, would harm national security. The agency says the redactions hide the names of CIA assets and former and current CIA officers as well as specific intelligence methods and partnerships that remain viable to protect national security.

A 1992 law required all government records related to the assassination to be "publicly disclosed in full" within 25 years. The deadline was Thursday.

(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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