Minneapolis federal judge played key role in releasing JFK assassination files
For more than 60 years, President John F. Kennedy's assassination has sparked intrigue, speculation and plenty of conspiracy theories.
Tens of thousands of pages related to his death were Tuesday. President Trump estimated the new files contain roughly 80,000 pages.
"I was a fifth grader at the time," John Tunheim, U.S. District Judge for the District of Minnesota, said.
It's news the federal judge said he first heard from his teacher.
"I remember her saying that the president was shot, and then we really just sat there in silence," Tunheim said.
In the 1990s, Tunheim served as former President Bill Clinton's Chair of the Assassination Records Review Board. Tunheim had the authority to review all records and decide what should be released related to Kennedy's assassination.
"We released nearly everything. There were some redactions," Tunheim said.
Tunheim said there are just under 4,000 documents with redactions at the national archives. Most redactions were related to protecting methods of intelligence gathering, he said.
While Tuneheim said more records have been uncovered since the 90s, in addition to thousands more recently found by the FBI, he said don't expect anything Earth-shattering once the new information is released.
"Anyone expecting that there's going to be a complete answer to what happened, evidence of a conspiracy, for example, I think people will be disappointed," Tunheim said.
Tunheim said government transparency is important to regain trust, ever since information about Kennedy's death was initially hidden.
"Both President Trump and President Biden said they were going to release everything, and then didn't. I hope this time President Trump means it because this information really does need to be released and released right away," Tunheim said.
Tunheim said he still believes Lee Harvey Oswald is responsible for Kennedy's murder and acted alone — with sufficient evidence to support his conviction.
The documents have been uploaded to a portal maintained by the National Archives, which can be found here.
