Donald Trump is facing a clash with the CIA over a promise to release top secret files about John F Kennedy’s assassination.
Mr Trump pledged on the campaign trail to release “all of the remaining documents” relating to the 1963 shooting, which has been the subject of long-running conspiracy theories.
The nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the former president’s nephew, as Mr Trump’s health secretary has given fresh impetus to calls for the files to be made public.
After accepting Mr Kennedy’s endorsement in August, the president-elect said he would set up a taskforce to release the documents as a “tribute in honour of Bobby”.
Mr Kennedy, who claims the CIA were directly involved in the assassination of his uncle, last year launched a petition calling for the Biden administration to release the last of the government’s records to “help to restore” trust in the government.
Experts believe Mr Trump could have a fight on his hands if the agency pushes back against releasing the documents when he returns to the White House.
“There’s going to be a conflict,” warned Jefferson Morley, an expert and editor of JFK Facts.
Others have warned that a clash with the CIA is inevitable at this point, given Mr Trump’s repeated claims he will have the documents released.
Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed, said: “I think Trump has locked himself into a position where he has to release them.”
Mr Trump heavily criticised the CIA for being part of the “deep state” working against him.
Fears of further clashes with his own intelligence agencies grew this week after Mr Trump appointed Tulsi Gabbard, who has a history of showing support for the Kremlin, as director of national intelligence.
Ms Gabbard previously blamed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Nato expansion and opposed US intervention in Syria. She went as far as meeting privately with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, declaring that he is not “not the enemy of the United States”.
An Iraq veteran and former Democratic presidential candidate, Ms Gabbard left the party in 2022 before endorsing Mr Trump earlier this year. Her appointment has sparked consternation within Western intelligence circles.
Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of Mi6, told The Telegraph: “This is a maverick appointment. She has no experience of intelligence and security.”
Under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, all government documents about the assassination were to be made publicly available by October 2017.
However, the law permitted their release to be delayed for national security and privacy reasons.
Under his previous administration, Mr Trump had pledged to unseal the remaining 15,000 documents containing redactions but was then allegedly persuaded out of doing so by Mike Pompeo, his CIA director.
Joe Biden released a tranche of the remaining files under his administration, whittling down the figure to 3,500 outstanding files, but the deadline for their release was pushed back owing to Covid-related delays.
Origin of Covid
Mr Trump is also facing pressure to release US intelligence on the origin of Covid.
Speaking to Joe Rogan, the podcaster, during the election campaign, the president-elect suggested he believed the virus originated from a research facility in Wuhan province.
“It was all around the Wuhan lab, by the way,” he said. “There are pictures with little lines, their body bags all around the Wuhan lab.”
Asked about whether Mr Trump would release Covid secrets, Sebastian Gorka, a British former White House adviser touted to become Mr Trump’s deputy national security adviser, told The Telegraph: “Just look at his answers to declassification he gave during his three-hour long interview with Joe Rogan.”
Dominic Cummings, the former No 10 adviser, has also claimed that conversation around the release of the files is a “live discussion at Mar-a-Lago”.
Mr Trump has pledged to impose sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports, and members of his Cabinet have also taken hawkish stances against Beijing.
Mr Trump’s nomination for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has described himself as “leading the charge to rebalance our relationship with Communist China”.
However, career intelligence chiefs may warn against releasing the full files amid fears of stoking tensions.
Mr Posner believes this will put Mr Trump into a difficult position.
“If he is this champion against the Deep State, how can he for a second time listen to those people putting up guardrails?” he said.
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