Senator Tom Cotton has responded to allegations he blocked the release of files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Cotton was asked on Fox News about Tucker Carlson’s claim that the Republican had worked behind the scenes to prevent the release of thousands of documents on Kennedy’s assassination.
“It’s false … Completely false. I have no problem releasing the JFK files. Tucker could have called or texted me. He has texted me multiple times in recent weeks. Had he asked me, I would have told him that,” Cotton said.
Carlson claimed in a podcast discussion with NewsNation host Chris Cuomo on Monday that the Arkansas senator had tried to keep the Kennedy files secret, but did not offer a theory as to why the senator would have done so.
According to the Daily Mail, Carlson also said he did not think the senator would agree to an interview when Cuomo asked why he hadn’t approached Cotton with the allegations.
Cotton, who is chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he had no idea what was in the files but was totally confident they would be released as directed by Donald Trump.
“I’ve never spoken to President Trump or any of his associates or administration officials about the JFK files. I’ve never objected to someone taking office because of their position on the JFK files,” he said in the Fox News interview.
“To be clear, I don’t really know what the so-called JFK files might contain. I’ve read news reports that there’s about 3,000 documents that have not been released yet. I think they’re going through a declassification review process at the Department of Justice, at the DNI, and at the CIA.”
Shortly after his inauguration in January, the President signed an executive order to declassify and release all remaining documents relating to the assassination of Kennedy, as well as records relating to the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy Sr, and the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
“A lot of people are waiting for this for a long time, for years, for decades,” Trump said at the time, adding “everything will be revealed” about the assassinations.
While working to comply with the President’s order, the FBI revealed in February it had uncovered an additional 2,400 records relating to Kennedy’s assassination due to “technological advances”.
More than five million records have previously been made public, but researchers estimate a further 3,000 have not yet been released, either in whole or in part.
The collection has been required to be open to the public since 2017, barring presidential exemptions.
Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas as his motorcade passed by the Texas School Book Depository Building. The Warren Commission established by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson found that 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, shooting the former president from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor of the building.
Oswald was killed two days after the assassination, and despite the Warren Commission finding no evidence of a conspiracy, there has been decades of speculation and alternative theories about the death.
