Luna Opens Second Hearing on the JFK Assassination Files

WASHINGTON—Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets Chairwoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) delivered opening remarks at today’s hearing on “The JFK Files: Assessing Over 60 Years of the Federal Government’s Obstruction, Obfuscation, and Deception.” In her remarks, Task Force Chairwoman Luna detailed how the federal government has lacked transparency when releasing federal documents that are in the public interest and praised President Trump and his administration for declassifying documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. At today’s hearing, the panel will hear from experts on the assassination and first-hand witnesses.

Below are Task Force Chairwoman Luna’s delivered remarks. 

Good afternoon. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. 

Over sixty years ago on a crowded street in Dallas, Texas, the president of the United States was assassinated in front of a horrified crowd, his Secret Service protection, and his wife. 

The death of President Kennedy was a momentous and tragic day for the Kennedy family, this country, and the world. The country has never been the same as it was before then. 

Compounding that tragedy, however, has been the 60 years of half-truths, deception, and outright lies that the federal government has offered regarding the details of that day and the events surrounding it. 

I want to thank the National Archives for their cooperation with this Task Force. The Archives have provided these posters behind us that were allegedly produced for the CIA to show President Johnson in the days following the assassination.  

They are, of course, images from the Zapruder film that Americans have come to know as capturing the final moments of President Kennedy’s life. 

But what Americans have come to understand about the assassination of President Kennedy has been mostly controlled and filtered through the assent and watchful gaze of federal agencies who have often resisted efforts to reveal the truth. 

They have done this, at best, because of their own embarrassment about their failures to protect President Kennedy that day.  

At worst, they have resisted for more nefarious reasons, such as failing to acknowledge the extent of the power and reach of the CIA in the 1960s and beyond, to the point of deceiving even the United States Congress.  

That is why we are here today. We are here to listen to witnesses who have waited—in some cases decades—to tell their stories. 

I want to be clear: The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets is not here to provide the definitive account of what happened on November 22, 1963. 

Instead, the Task Force is meant to root out the hidden pockets of the federal government that have for too long remained in shadows and out of reach for even good-faith investigations to reach. 

I want to thank President Trump for committing to the principles of transparency and holding the government accountable to the people. His executive order regarding the declassification of documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is a step in the right direction. 

The job of the Task Force is to ensure the federal agencies follow that order. Because in the past, a president’s order for transparency has not always been heeded by the more secretive portions of our government. 

The objective of the Task Force is not to indulge in conspiracy theories, but to push for the release of information so these theories can be put to bed and the American people can finally have truth. 

It is the federal agencies’ lack of transparency for 60 years that has led to people’s distrust in their government. It is time to restore that 

I would also like to provide for those who have been closely following this to include research and updates on several documents that are outstanding. To date, the Joannides files have not been located. A whistleblower report from the CIA alleging the CIA’s implication has also not been located. 

Lee Harvey Oswald’s travel records have not been located and the DS 201 file, who was a plausible suspect for the Delaney Plaza shooter, and then as well the MAA documents concerning CIA penetration of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. 

Last week, for an update, I did speak to the CIA directly, not in a SCIF so I can talk about it publicly, and they did notify me that four of these five documents would be publicly released in the coming weeks, but there was one that was outstanding, and I do believe that that outstanding documents is the Joannides file. 

Prior to that, we also requested footage from NBC. They gave us something like 20 hours of footage, all of which was not the Wegman footage that we had asked for. So, we are kindly asking NBC to reassess their archives and produce that documentation.