Trump Told Roger Stone He 'Won't Believe' What's in Classified JFK Files

Roger Stone, a GOP political operative and close confidant of Donald Trump, said that the former president told him classified documents pertaining to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy are "so horrible you wouldn't believe it."

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) finished its records review on Friday, in accordance with a memo by President Joe Biden that instructed the posting of documents containing new information associated with the President John F. Kennedy (JFK) Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that 99 percent of records associated with the assassination are available for public consumption through NARA. Biden has declassified more than 16,000 related documents since 2021, including 1,103 last week, and more than 2,600 overall since December 2022.

"Even he, Trump, held back 20 percent of the documents," Stone told Jack Posobiec of Human Events, part of the GOP nonprofit Turning Point USA. "When I had the occasion to ask him about that, I said, 'Why didn't you let it all out?'

"He said, 'I can't tell you, it's so horrible you wouldn't believe it. Someday you'll find out.' That was the sum total of it and he didn't want to talk further about it. He kicked the can down the road to President Joe Biden."

A spokesperson for the presidential campaign of Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., JFK's nephew, told Newsweek on Tuesday: "We will never know for sure until these documents are made public in full. After 60 years, there are no national security concerns. The American people deserve to know their own history."

As a result of congressional passage of the JFK Records Act of 1992, the release of related records had to occur by October 2017.

Trump did not start declassifying JFK-related records until after October 2017, citing intelligence agencies and sources potentially being compromised. He reportedly declassified tens of thousands of documents during his term.

Documents released in December offered some new insight into alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and how he was being surveilled by the CIA, as well as his involvement with the agency on an operation months before the killing.

But historians have expressed a lukewarm reaction to the documents as providing a wider glimpse into JFK's death.

Stone said he asked Trump in the early stages of his presidency what he would do with JFK-related records.

Weeks before the scheduled release date in 2017, Trump allegedly asked Stone, "Why hasn't anyone brought this to my attention?"

When Trump told Stone that said sources and methods would be exposed, Stone responded that most sources are dead and that the public deserved to know the details.

Newsweek reached out to Stone by text message for comment.

"As I have reiterated throughout my Presidency, I fully support the Act's aim to maximize transparency by disclosing all information in records concerning the assassination, except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise," Biden said in a memo released Friday by the White House in accordance with NARA's records release.

Biden added that acting archivist Colleen Shogan told him the process was complete and recommended that he postpone the public release of certain redacted information in the records certified as part of the December 2022 memo.

Biden was also instructed by NARA to provide its National Declassification Center (NDC) with transparency plans that will be used "to ensure appropriate continued release of information as specific identified harm dissipates, then triggering public disclosure."

"I have every confidence that the NDC's implementation of these plans offers a clear path forward for public transparency and the timely release of additional information as circumstances warrant," Shogan said in a statement.