Donald Trump releases more than 2,800 JFK assassination files

US president, Donald Trump has finally released 2,891 pages of classified documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy from the National Archives which have been kept secret for nearly 54 years, following a last-minute scramble to meet a 25-year legal deadline.

Trump delayed the release on Thursday evening due to pressure from the CIA, FBI and other federal agencies but will keep some final secrets which will be be reviewed during a 180-day period.

In a memo released by the White House, Trump said: 

I am ordering today that the veil finally be lifted. At the same time, executive departments and agencies have proposed to me that certain information should continue to be redacted because of national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns. I have no choice — today — but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our nation’s security.

The trove of files was published on the National Archives website on Thursday night

The release of the files is certain to set off a frenzy of reading in newsrooms, living rooms, universities, and even under tin foil hats, but it will take time to sort through the more than 3,000 files likely comprising tens of thousands of pages of documents and media. 

Those files will be added to the National Archives' current collection of more than 5 million pages of records, including photographs, video and audio recordings, a collection that takes up approximately 2,000 cubic feet of Archive floor space.

The trove of files was published on the National Archives website on Thursday night, and produced revelations and prompted more questions about the fateful day in Dallas in 1963 reports the Daily Mail.

The documents revealed that Lee Harvey Oswald was being tracked by the FBI before JFK was killed and met a KGB agent in Mexico City's Soviet Embassy two months before the shooting.

An unidentified man also called the FBI and said they were going to kill Oswald - just 24 hours before he was gunned down by Jack Ruby while in police custody.

But not all of the records were released, because Trump has kept some back so federal agencies can black out portions.

He is allowing intelligence, law enforcement and military agencies to take the next six months to justify their requests to redact specific pages.

Bystanders looked on as Jacqueline Kennedy reached over to help her husband who lay on the rear of a car after being struck by an assassin's bullet as his motorcade traveled through Dealey Plaza

One of the documents released included a transcript of a conversation with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover concerning a threat made against Lee Harvey Oswald.

There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead. Last night, we received a call in our Dallas office from a man talking in a calm voice and saying he was a member of a committee organized to kill Oswald,' Hoover says.

He also says he was assured by Dallas police that they would give the shooting suspect protection, but Jack Ruby managed to kill him on November 24, 1963, two days after JFK's assassination. 

After the shooting, Secret Service agent Clinton Hill (pictured) ran from a car directly behind the President's and jumped onto the vehicle in order to further protect JFK and the First Lady

Other files not related to the shooting show that Robert Kennedy was sent a memo when he was Attorney General warning him that a book detailing his affair with Marilyn Monroe was about to be published.

There is also more insight into the elaborate plots to kill communist leaders in Latin America, including Fidel Castro.

The White House said the released files to the National Archives and Records Administration are only those that will be released 'in full' – and agencies will be able to roll out partially edited documents over the next week.

The White House has set April 26, 2018 as the new deadline for spy and law enforcement agencies to justify each and every redaction.