The Anna Paulina Luna Task Force
Mark E. Adamczyk Esq.
If you are interested in the history of the JFK assassination and want to know what actually happened to President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, you have probably heard or read about the recently-appointed “Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets”. This is a congressional panel established by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, chaired by Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).
The stated primary mission of the task force is to investigate and recommend the declassification of long-held government records related to significant historical events and topics of public interest. The task force was formed in response to President Trump’s executive order signed on January 23, 2025, titled “Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” which mandates federal agencies to prepare plans for releasing these records. According to journalist Jeff Morley, both CIA Director John Ratcliffe and DNI Chair Tulsi Gabbard are in favor of the order.
As of today, the task force has made notable headlines. On February 25, 2025, Representative Luna announced via X that she met with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), securing a commitment to make declassified JFK files publicly accessible through a dedicated NARA website. She indicated that documents would be uploaded in real time once declassified, and she addressed efforts by some within the NARA agency to delay access, claiming those “obstructionists” were being removed. Additionally, Luna has scheduled the task force’s first hearing for March 26, 2025, which will focus specifically on the JFK assassination. This hearing aims to examine evidence and interview firsthand witnesses, including doctors who treated Kennedy at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where the task force plans to travel as part of its investigation.
A visit to Dallas to interview the Parkland doctors and a tour of Dealey Plaza would be educational for the task force. Representative Luna has publicly questioned the official Warren Commission findings, asserting her belief in a “two-shooter” theory based on conflicting evidence and abnormalities she claims were overlooked.
But here’s the problem: Why spend the task force’s time and money investigating things we have known for years? As written by JFK Assassination Chokeholds co-author Paul Bleau, we already know that over forty witnesses, including almost all of the medical personnel at both Parkland and Bethesda Medical Center—where the autopsy was held—clearly saw the massive injury to the back of JFK’s head, describing what could only be an exit would. The evidence we already know makes it all but impossible to conclude that there was not at least one shot fired at JFK from the front of his limousine, which vitiates the Warren Commission’s conclusion that only three (3) shots were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald from the rear.
The task force is on the correct path by investigating NARA and the Archivist’s inaction and failures under the JFK Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act). Pursuant to the JFK Act, the Assassination Records and Review Board (ARRB) in the 1990s already made final declassification decisions on the thousands of assassination records still withheld in full or in part. Under the exhaustive rights afforded to agencies still seeking postponement of assassination records to this day, they already had their complete legal opportunity to appeal those final declassification decisions to the ARRB and the President for continued postponement.
Which brings us back to the focus that should be front and center for Representative Luna’s task force – the Archivist. As discovered by JFK Assassination Chokeholds co-author Andrew Iler, the ARRB’s final declassification decisions from the 1990s have been buried at NARA. Why? The Archivist should immediately be called into an oversight hearing with the task force to explain why NARA did not follow the ARRB’s final agency orders on postponed assassination records and release them as ordered by the ARRB. The Archivist should be compelled to explain why it is nearly impossible to find the ARRB’s final declassification orders at NARA. The path to the proper declassification of the JFK assassination records lies in the ARRB’s final orders.
The final point, and this is critical, is revealed in comments recently made by Representative Luna in an interview with Clayton Morris on Lear Redacted. Luna stated that she is confident, based on discussions with the White House and Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence), that there will be a full release of assassination records through the efforts of the task force. I have no doubt in Representative Luna’s confidence, and her energy and passion on this effort should be commended.
However, here is the troubling comment Luna gave in the interview. The Archivist has apparently told Representative Luna that even if President Trump orders the declassification of assassination records, the President’s decision then needs to go back to the originating agency for a “re-review” by the agency head. Representative Luna disagrees with NARA’s assessment, and she is correct. The Archivist’s position is directly contrary to the JFK Act. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) standards, an agency head does have the authority to make declassification decisions in their discretion. The JFK Act is not FOIA, and it is not close. Under the JFK Act, the final declassification decision, short of the President, was with the ARRB and only the ARRB. If the ARRB ordered the full release of a record by a specified date, the agencies (many years ago) had a final 30-day right of appeal. And the following is important: Short of an appeal based on clear and convincing evidence justifying continued postponement, the Archivist had a legal duty to release the assassination record and publish it for public disclosure.
Luna said that if a record is ordered declassified, then “do it, and call it a day…declassification does not need to go through bureaucratic nonsense.” Again, she is correct. Under the standards of the JFK Act, only the President in 2017 had the final call on declassification. And any further Presidential decisions for continued postponement must be stated in a public Presidential certification stating a current identifiable harm to the United States or a living person.
The correct legal path on the declassification process under the JFK Act is simple. After the Archivist is compelled to make the ARRB’s final release decisions available and easily searchable, President Trump and his legal advisors need to review the ARRB’s final decisions in the Archivist’s possession. If there is no longer a current identifiable harm in the withheld record to a living person or current intelligence source or method, the record must be released in full today pursuant to the JFK Act. Further, President Trump needs to immediately order all originating agencies to turn over (to the Archivist) any assassination records that were not provided to the ARRB in the 1990s as required by the JFK Act. The same Presidential review process would apply to those records as well. The task force, with Congressional oversight powers in the JFK Act itself, has the authority to make sure all of this happens without further delay. No further “plans” are necessary, especially not from the intelligence agencies who are determined to maintain secrecy.
In 2025, it is fiction to believe that a record from 1963 could still pose an identifiable harm. Maybe a handful of records by a stretch of the imagination, but not thousands. In short, President Trump should not tolerate more obstruction from the intelligence community. As explained in JFK Assassination Chokeholds, the American people have already tolerated more than 60 years of obstruction of justice in the JFK case. Unless President Trump can explain how and on what basis a withheld record still poses a current and identifiable harm to the United States or a living person, the record can and must be released today pursuant to the clear Congressional mandates in the JFK Act.
