Trump keeps some files on JFK sealed

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has accepted a recommendation from the National Archives to continue blocking public access to hundreds of records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy more than five decades after the 35th president was killed.

The National Archives released its last batch of more than 19,000 records on Thursday. But some of material remains undisclosed.

The decision came in a memo Trump issued Thursday that said some of the classified documents are “of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure.” The FBI and CIA had said the release could jeopardize national security.

The president ordered agencies to review the remaining documents in the next three years to determine which should be released.

The records released Thursday under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act passed by Congress in 1992. The act ordered the archives to disclose all information collected — some 5 million pages of material — on the assassination within 25 years, barring any exceptions designated by the president.

Those 25 years ended Oct. 26, 2017. Several days before that deadline, it appeared Trump had no plans to withhold anything. But Trump decided to block the release pending a six-month review.