Via Federal Express Overnight Courier & Email
U.S. House Representative Anna Paulina Luna
Florida’s Thirteenth Congressional District
9200 113th St. N., Office Suite 305
Seminole, Florida 33772
Re: Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets (“Task Force”) -
Official Record on the JFK Assassination
Dear Congresswoman Luna:
I am writing to congratulate you on the public hearings of April 1 and May 20, 2025. In those hearings, the Task Force created an important record on the secrecy surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
I am a Florida attorney and member of the Florida Bar since 2005. I am a co-author of The JFK Assassination Chokeholds, along with James DiEugenio who testified before the Task Force on April 1, 2025. I have studied the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (the “JFK Act”) extensively since 2017, the year when each assassination record was to be disclosed in full and available in the JFK Collection at the National Archives. While President Trump’s recent Executive Order and the focused efforts of the Task Force have certainly resulted in progress, the JFK Collection at the National Archives is still not complete as required by law. This letter will explain the serious continuing problems surrounding the JFK assassination records held by the National Archives and specifically what the Task Force can do to ensure that Congress’s mandate from 1992 is fully carried out and respected.
At the May 20 hearing, you stated that the Task Force is not organized “to provide the definitive account of what happened to President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Instead, the Task Force is meant to root out the hidden pockets of federal government that has for too long remained in the shadows and out of our reach...for even good faith investigators to reach.” I agree with that statement, and I believe the following information is critical to the stated mission of the Task Force.
The hidden pocket that can and should be investigated going forward is the conduct of and obstruction by the National Archives with respect to JFK assassination records. On May 20, we heard Judge John Tunheim testify that the Assassination Records and Review Board (ARRB) never saw or had the opportunity to review many assassination records that were supposed to be at the National Archives for ARRB review and declassification decisions. Judge Tunheim also confirmed what he perceived to be the plan of agencies to “wait out” the ARRB, and then selectively turn over assassination records to the National Archives “at a later time.” As you are probably aware, these acts of obstruction of the ARRB mandate are and were a direct and flagrant violation of the JFK Act, and it is the chief reason why there is still not a complete and reliable collection of assassination records, despite President Trump’s recent Executive Order dated January 23, 2025.
The following discussion will respectfully attempt to provide a guide-map on what the Task Force can do to ensure that there is a legitimate, comprehensive, organized and transparent collection of assassination records available to the public. This may not provide a definitive account of what happened to President Kennedy, but without strong action by the Task Force on the following issues, we can be sure that we will never have all assassination records generated by agencies that were always most concerned about maintaining their secrecy.
Pre-ARRB Obstruction of the JFK Act
As you know, the JFK Act was signed into law by Congress on October 26, 1992. The CIA knew that the ARRB would have unprecedented declassification authority and that the ARRB was mandated to review and make release decisions on each assassination record. Before the JFK Records Act even became law, the CIA was prepared with a plan to maintain maximum secrecy over its most sensitive assassination records. By February 1992 (eight months before the Act was passed), the CIA had already designed a written strategy to circumvent the JFK Act before the ARRB even took office.
On February 10, 1992, the CIA’s Chief of History Staff authored a memorandum with the subject “Survey of CIA’s Records from House Select Committee on Assassinations Investigation”. This collection of files involved 64 boxes of CIA records sequestered by Congress for the HSCA investigation of 1977-1979. Specifically, this “Sequestered Collection” of CIA assassination records is described to contain:
16 boxes of Lee Harvey Oswald’s 201 file and numerous loose folders (mainly from Mexico City Station records) collected for the Warren Commission
34 boxes of material collected by the Directorate of Operations
29 boxes of records from the CIA Office of Legislative Counsel, Inspector General, Office of General Counsel, Directorate of Science and Technology, Office of Security, and several boxes of HSCA staff notes and records
72 microfilm reels (box no. 64), which include the Oswald 201 file and Mexico City Station records, as well as other 201 files and information about Cuban exile groups.
Under the sub-heading titled “Sensitivity” (paragraph 5), the memorandum discusses a scattering of “Top Secret” and codeword documentation in this Sequestered Collection. Materials considered “especially sensitive” include “201 files, phone taps, mail intercepts, security files, photo surveillance, names of sources, watch lists and MHCHAOS documentation. Such material occurs throughout the collection, usually in response to HSCA requests for name traces. There are 22 microfilm reels of 201 files in addition to the Oswald file, while eight boxes contain security records, including for example, files on David Atlee Phillips, Martin Luther King, and Claw Shaw (sic).”
In the section titled “CIA Complicity” in the JFK assassination, the memorandum states: “Our survey found nothing in these records indicating any CIA role in the Kennedy assassination or assassination conspiracy (if there was one), or any CIA involvement with Oswald.”
[Note: We now know from recent testimony before the Task Force that the CIA without question had extensive operational involvement with Oswald.]
After internal considerations of whether to fully close or open this Sequestered Collection, the memorandum states a final “Recommendation” (section 10):
“I recommend that CIA transfer its entire HSCA collection (as defined and identified in this report) at its existing classification (emphasis added) to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), for continuing declassification review by Archives staff, in accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and CIA guidelines (emphasis added). This transfer should be earned out under the auspices of CIA’s Historical Review Program (emphasis added). To retire this HSCA collection to the National Archives offers some significant advantages...”
The perceived advantage identified by the CIA was that a transfer of these HSCA records (Sequestered Collection) to the National Archives, before the establishment of the ARRB, would “protect their existing classification.”
The memorandum concludes that “NARA must ensure the confidentiality of investigatory sources and the proper protection of personal privacy and national security information, including intelligence sources and methods. NARA would continue the court-ordered declassification review according to CIA guidelines (emphasis added). CIA can accelerate the declassification of this collection by funding review positions at NARA (emphasis added).
The final Recommendation concludes: “If Congress should eventually undertake to open this entire Collection without regard to classification, the National Archives will be in a stronger position to protect its national security and privacy information than the CIA, whose motives would appear self-serving, if not sinister.”
Why is this a serious problem? First, the CIA transferred sensitive HSCA records to the National Archives before enactment of the JFK Act, which subverted review by the ARRB. This may have only been proper if the Sequestered Collection was transferred to NARA and “made publicly available in their entirety without redaction” as provided in section 5(d)(3) of the JFK Act. Otherwise, only the ARRB had the authority to make final declassification decisions under specific standards in the JFK Act, with only the President having the authority to overrule the ARRB on its final decisions and orders. As Judge Tunheim confirmed in his May 20 testimony, the ARRB made those final decisions on over 27,000 records (where agencies sought postponement) that were provided to the ARRB for review under the JFK Act.
A critical question for the Task Force is: Was this sensitive Sequestered Collection of CIA assassination records provided to the ARRB with identification aids and RIF numbers for review by the ARRB under the JFK Act? Or was this Collection transferred separately to the National Archives under separate procedures, not authorized by the JFK Act, for review only by the Archivist and the CIA at a later point in time and under different standards that were favorable to the CIA? This CIA memorandum from February 1992 strongly suggests the latter.
As the likely result of this CIA Memorandum of February 1992, a massive trove of CIA assassination records from its HSCA collection was shipped to the National Archives before the ARRB could start its work. Assuming that is true, these records were not assigned Record Identification Form (RIF) numbers and properly catalogued for mandatory ARRB review. This CIA strategy ended up giving the Archivist unauthorized and uncontrolled discretion over the CIA’s HSCA Sequestered Collection, controlled only by CIA guidelines, which is not permitted in any provision of the JFK Act. The Archivist and staff who controlled these records in the 1990s needs to be questioned about (a) exactly how the Archivist exercised his discretion pursuant to section 5(d)(3) of the JFK Records Act and (b) specifically about the extent of the HSCA/CIA records that did not receive a RIF number and were not disclosed to the ARRB for review and release final determinations.
These are JFK assassination records of the CIA for the HSCA investigation, which are critical to the historical record. These are probably some of the most important CIA records out there because they were handled in a highly secretive manner before the JFK Act took effect. As discussed by James DiEugenio and Judge Tunheim before the Task Force, we know how hard the CIA fought the ARRB on postponement requests for records that were in the JFK Collection under the JFK Act. It is clear that this “Sequestered Collection” of HSCA records, apparently turned over in a clandestine manner to the National Archives before the appointment of the ARRB and without RIF numbers and proper cataloging, was even more sensitive to the CIA.
Also note that this CIA Memo was not released by the Archives until November 1, 2021. The Identification Aid Form for this assassination record, as required by the JFK Act in 1992, was not generated until 2005. Not only is this delay and selective treatment of critical assassination records a direct violation of the JFK Act, but this CIA Memo is a prime example of the need for a full investigation of assassination records that were handled only the by the CIA and NARA before and after the ARRB and without any identification, cataloging, periodic review and mandated full releases on or before October 26, 2017 as required by the JFK Act.
The link to this CIA memo is found here:
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2021/docid-32404131.pdf
I believe the February 10, 1992 Secret CIA Memo should be mandatory reading for the Task Force and a strong basis to take appropriate action to compel the Archivist to locate and determine the status of the entire HSCA Sequestered Collection. The CIA may still claim some equities in these records, but they are assassination records that must be reviewed for declassification under the standards of the JFK Act.
ARRB Final Determinations and Periodic Review
Judge Tunheim acknowledged on the record that the ARRB reviewed over 27,000 assassination records in response to postponement requests from agencies. As a result, each assassination record currently held in the “Protected Collection” at NARA is the result of an ARRB “Final Determination” under the JFK Act. When the ARRB made these final agency determinations on each record it reviewed between 1994 and 1998, it created an “ARRB Final Determination Notification” form (FDN). Each FDN included a specific standard under the JFK Act that formed the legal basis for postponement either in full or in part. The FDN also provided an unclassified reason for each postponement decision, along with the ARRB’s final determination for periodic review and/or release (e.g. a covert agent’s death, or a source or method no longer requiring protection).
The mandate of Congress in the JFK Act was clear, as expressed in sections 5(g) and 9(c) of the JFK Act. After the ARRB made a final decision on a postponement request from agencies, that decision was published in an unclassified FDN. Agencies were notified of the decision to release or postpone until a specified date. If postponement was approved by the ARRB, originating agencies and the Archivist had a duty to periodically review those records until such time as a specified occurrence or other date (as identified by the ARRB) warranted a mandated release of the record. There is no record that any of this was undertaken by the Archivist of the United States. Only the location and status of the ARRB’s Final Determination Notifications can provide a basis to determine the status of the most important records reviewed by the ARRB. Once all of the Final Determination Notifications and associated assassination records are accounted for, the Task Force can confirm whether those critical assassination records have been disclosed and released in full in compliance with the law.
Some may argue that the ARRB’s Final Determinations are merely recommendations and that all declassification authority ultimately lies with the President. That is only true to an extent. The ARRB’s Final Determinations are agency final orders. This is consistent with American administrative law principles. The ARRB was an independent government agency. The ARRB’s chief function was to make final declassification decisions on postponement requests. For each postponement request (in over 27,000 records), the ARRB held a meeting and heard the originating agency’s appeals. The ARRB made a final decision and notified the agency, thus ensuring due process to the agency. The ARRB also notified the President of its Final Determinations, and the President had 30 days under the JFK Act to override the ARRB’s decision. If the President did not exercise his authority to override the ARRB, the ARRB’s decision became a final agency order that the Archivist was required to follow.
Why is this information so critical? Lawyer Andrew Iler recently uncovered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) prepared by ARRB chief counsel Jeremy Gunn with respect to the President’s 30-day window to override any ARRB final determinations. Mr. Iler is also a coauthor of The JFK Assassination Chokeholds, and I consider him to be the world’s leading expert on the JFK Act and how it was intended by Congress and the ARRB to operate. The ARRB realized it was practically impossible for President Clinton to review over 27,000 ARRB final declassification orders in short order, so Dr. Gunn and the ARRB simplified the process for the President. If the President wished to override any ARRB final decisions under his authority in the JFK Act, he could do so within 30 days of notification from the ARRB. If the President did not respond with a written certification overriding the ARRB’s decision(s), it would be deemed Presidential Certification and consent to the ARRB’s Final Determination under the JFK Act. Mr. Iler discovered clear written confirmation that President Clinton approved this MOU with the ARRB. Please refer to: https://jfkchokeholds.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Box09-Folder13- 9504452-Pages015-021.pdf
The result of President Clinton’s approval is that the ARRB’s Final Determinations for assassination records in the Protected Collection are the final and binding authority for declassification. As such, the National Archivist was required to periodically review these FDN’s, without new appeals and interference from agencies on the same records, and abide by the declassification decisions of the ARRB (which were certified by President Clinton).
Between September 1998 and October 26,2017, virtually no mandatory periodic review took place as required by sections 5 and 9 of the JFK Act. If this mandatory periodic review had occurred, by October 26, 2017 there should have been very few records left in the Protected Collection held at the National Archives.
Instead, because of the Archivist’s failures to abide by the JFK Act for 25 years and the unwarranted interference from the intelligence community at the eleventh hour, President Trump was pressured to delay the declassification process for an undetermined number of unidentified assassination records, which we know he did not want to do in 2017. If the Archivist had followed its ministerial duties under the JFK Act and provided President Trump with the handful of remaining withheld records (if any) and the corresponding ARRB’s Final Determinations, President Trump could have simply followed precedence established by President Clinton and the job would have been done with respect to records actually made available to and reviewed by the ARRB. [1]
To compound all of these problems, the ARRB Final Determinations have been unlawfully kept secret at the National Archives and the public has been denied access to these critical, binding and enforceable legal orders.
To resolve the actual status of the ARRB’s Final Determinations and the associated assassination records, Andrew Iler recently made a FOIA request to NARA for copies of the FDN’s (there should be over 27,000 of them at NARA), and he personally visited the National Archives with other researchers in College Park, Maryland in November 2024 in search of the FDN’s.
Mr. Iler has written about this experience at the National Archives. He has also thoroughly researched and written about the ARRB’s operations and the critical historical importance of the ARRB’s Final Determinations. When Mr. Iler and his colleagues finally obtained a box of FDN’s at the Archives, they were only provided with approximately 450 of them by complete coincidence. That is less than 2% of what NARA should have been able to produce on this visit in response to a very focused records request.
In response to Mr. Iler’s FOIA request to NARA for digital copies of the ARRB’s Annual Reports and Final Determination Notifications, NARA sent an email to Mr. Iler dated June 13, 2025, which states:
“Thank you for your follow-up message regarding your request (our tracking number RF 25-32296) for digital copies of the Assassination Records Review Board's (ARRB) Annual Reports and Final Determination Notifications. We have not been able to identify any additional digital Annual Reports for Fiscal Years 1997 and 1998 or a set of Final Determination Notifications [emphasis added]. As my reference colleagues noted, a search of the ARRB finding aids and the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) only identified Annual Reports for Fiscal Years 1995 and 1996. We have not located any evidence that the ARRB produced Annual Reports in 1997 or 1998.”
This is a remarkable response from NARA considering that they produced approximately 450 FDN’s to Mr. Iler and his colleagues at their physical inspection at NARA in November 2024. As of June 13, 2025, NARA’s official position is that the National Archives has no record of the ARRB’s meticulous review and final postponement decisions. These are the very records that were required by law to serve as the basis for NARA’s duty under the JFK Act to periodically review and ensure an accountable, transparent and enforceable process to downgrade and declassify the Protection Collection.
Mr. Iler’s published articles on these issues are also critical reading for the Task Force. They can be found at the following links on James DiEugenio’s website, “Kennedy’s and King”:
Post-ARRB Activity at NARA - Periodic Review Failures
The issue of the ARRB’s Final Determinations covers the serious problem at NARA with respect to records that agencies did turn over to the ARRB for review of postponement decisions. What about records that were not made available to the ARRB as required by law? This also requires serious investigation in light of Judge Tunheim’s compelling statement to the Task Force on May 20, 2025 about the CIA “waiting out the ARRB” and his observation that records were sent to NARA “at a later time.”
As discussed above, the winding down of the ARRB did not excuse NARA from continuing to collect, organize and downgrade declassification of assassination records. However, neither the Archivist nor originating agencies had the legal authority to make declassification decisions on their own after the ARRB. Only the ARRB had that authority with respect to each and every assassination record that existed as of October 26, 1992.
For the records not made available to the ARRB, and for agencies and government offices that “waited out” the ARRB and haphazardly sent records to the National Archives after the ARRB’s tenure in violation of the JFK Act, that is a wholly separate investigation. The Archivist should be questioned on activities at NARA after the ARRB. Were the records received at a “later time” inventoried and assigned RIF numbers for cataloging and indexing as part of the JFK Collection? Exactly who reviewed them for downgrading and declassification, and when? The Archivist has a duty to collect and catalog records, however, neither the Archivist nor agencies had independent authority under the JFK Act to perform the actual declassification decisions mandated by Congress in 1992.
A prime example was the FBI release of approximately 2,400 records in response to President Trump’s 2025 Executive Order. How did this happen, and how many other similar incidents of this occurred after 1998 when the ARRB left office? Until these records are accounted for and declassification decisions are made under the standards of the JFK Act, an accurate collection and accounting of JFK assassination records in the possession of agencies is not complete.
A strong solution for ensuring the complete accounting for and declassification of assassination records is the appointment of a new ARRB, or similar independent agency. This is completely consistent with section 12(b) of the JFK Act, which states:
“The remaining provisions of this Act shall continue in effect until such time as the Archivist certifies (emphasis added) to the President and the Congress that all assassination records have been made available to the public in accordance with this Act.”
In summary, the ARRB could only review and make declassification decisions on records that were available to it under the JFK Act. As explained above, the ARRB did just that and issued Final Determinations on each record where agencies sought postponement. For the undetermined number of records that were not made available to the ARRB, the Archivist cannot possibly comply with section 12(b) and issue a certification of final disclosure until those records are located and reviewed by a new ARRB (or similar independent agency), or Congressional oversight committee under the JFK Act (specifically, section 6). Assuming that there is no legitimate reason to protect information in those records in 2025 under section 6 of the JFK Act, those records can also be accounted for in a complete and reliable collection of JFK assassination records at the National Archives.
Conclusion and Recommendations
It is clear that the CIA and other agencies subverted the entire JFK Act from even before its passage in October 1992. Another recent example of this is the release of certain CIA files on officer George Joannides. The Task Force should certainly be commended for compelling the CIA to release more files on George Joannides, which further demonstrate the CIA’s focused effort to obstruct the HSCA investigation and conceal the CIA’s intelligence connections to and operational use of Lee Harvey Oswald. However, there should be no tolerance for any kind of CIA policy to omit disclosure of its operational files that are related to the assassination. If the CIA can demonstrate a need in 2025 for continued postponement under section 6 of the JFK Act, that postponement decision should be made independently and with appropriate oversight as discussed above.
For those who may claim that the CIA, the Archivist or other agency are permitted to employ separate policies or rules for declassification of certain assassination records, I believe the correct response is found in sections 2(a)(5) and 2(a)(6) of the JFK Act. Those provisions collectively state that the JFK Act was necessary because FOIA and Executive Order No. 12356 (entitled “National Security Information”) have prevented the timely disclosure of records relating to the assassination of President Kennedy. Further, section 11(a) of the JFK Act makes it clear that when the Act requires transmission of a record to the Archivist for public disclosure, that the JFK Act takes precedence over any other law, judicial decision or common law doctrine that would otherwise prohibit such transmission or disclosure. [2]
The bottom line is that the JFK Act is the binding and ultimate legal authority with respect to any government record that is related to the assassination of President Kennedy. A thorough investigation of the CIA and the National Archives on the handling of assassination records before, during and after the tenure of the ARRB is critical to the stated goals of the Task Force. I believe that Congress has a duty under the JFK Records Act to conduct exactly this kind of oversight.
Recommendations
- Conduct a hearing with past and present senior officials from the CIA and National Archives regarding the handling of the CIA’s Sequestered Collection of HSCA assassination records. These are legislative branch records, and while the CIA may still claim certain equities in these records, they are assassination records that must be reviewed by the Task Force or appropriate oversight committee(s) under the standards of the JFK Act for declassification. The executive branch (e.g. the CIA and the National Archives) should not have unfettered authority to seize control of and make its own classification decisions on these records.
- In the same hearing, seek answers on whether operational files of the CIA or other agencies were excluded from disclosure to the ARRB and on what basis.
- Conduct a hearing with senior officials from the National Archives regarding the ARRB Final Determinations, their location and status, and the disclosure status of each associated assassination record reviewed by the ARRB.
- Conduct a hearing with senior officials from the National Archives regarding each assassination record transferred to NARA after the ARRB’s termination, their location and disclosure status at NARA.
- Demand the National Archives to comply with the JFK Act and finally create and maintain a comprehensive and searchable catalog and index of all assassination records in the JFK Records Collection. It is critical for the public to know precisely what is actually held and maintained at NARA at this time.
Finally, there may be some who believe that the Task Force does not have enough time to investigate the CIA and National Archives on these issues. I do not believe that is the case. Section 4(e) of the JFK Act provides express oversight authority and jurisdiction over the JFK Collection to the Committee on Government Operations of the House and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate. There is no time limit on that unlimited oversight authority in the JFK Act. Important work can still be done by Congress until the Archivist can legitimately make its required final certification required by section 12(b) of the JFK Act.
Thank you for your attention to these details and to these important remaining issues. I remain available to meet with you and your colleagues to discuss the above matters and recommendations as may be of assistance to you.
Respectfully Submitted,
Mark E. Adamczyk, Esq.
cc: Washington D.C. Office, 226 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515
[1] It is critical to note that the ARRB’s Final Determinations and the associated records were the most important historical work performed under the JFK Act. These are the records that agencies provided to NARA for ARRB review and fought fiercely with the ARRB to protect. Due to the Archivist’s failure to perform its ministerial duty of periodic review, there were still an undetermined number of assassination records being fully or partially withheld by NARA in October 2017, which put President Trump in a difficult position. An accurate number was impossible to calculate because of the broken down and functionally inoperable identification aid and cataloging program that NARA and agencies failed to adequately maintain pursuant to their legal mandate. ARRB staff provided NARA with a meticulous digital cataloging program for NARA to use for periodic review, downgrading and final declassification after ARRB termination and ultimately disclose every assassination record to the public in accordance with the ARRB’s Final Determination. There is simply no valid excuse for this failure of the Archivist to perform functions that were integral to the JFK Act.
[2] The only exceptions under section 11(a) are section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code and deeds of gift.
