Newly-unveiled files related to the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have revealed details of a Soviet KGB defector called ‘the most valuable’ turncoat the CIA ever had.
The release early Tuesday evening included 2,182 PDF documents totaling 63,400 pages on the National Archives website more than 60 years after the president was shot and killed in Dallas.
While there were few immediate bombshells found, one of the files with some intrigue pertain to Anatoliy Golitsyn, who wrote about his experience as a defector in two books released during and after the Cold War.
CIA Counter-intelligence Director James Angleton and writer Sir John Hackett both termed Golitsyn ‘the most valuable defector ever to reach the West.’
Among the files released include statements from Golitsyn’s administrative assistant Donald Deneslya, who spoke about the work done by Golitsyn, who used the code name ‘Stone’ and under the alias ‘John Stone.’
Newly unredacted pages show that Golitsyn was given a settlement of $200,000 by the CIA as well as protection.
He was also provided a Virginia residence, located near the CIA’s headquarters in Langley.
Deneslya was a CIA operative – which Golitsyn was aware of – working undercover as a Georgetown University student while he helped Golitsyn write one of his books.
Newly-unveiled files related to the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have revealed details of Soviet KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, once called ‘the most valuable’ turncoat the CIA ever had
While there were few immediate bombshells found, one of the files with some intrigue pertain to Anatoliy Golitsyn, who wrote about his experience as a defector in two books released during and after the Cold War
He said Golitsyn ‘turned up traitors in many Western countries,’ including Swedish and West German generals.
Golitsyn, who died in 2008, supplied information about several Soviet spies and revealed how deeply the KGB had infiltrated governments in France and other Western nations.
The files included typewritten reports and handwritten notes spanning decades, including details of a top CIA agent who claimed the deep state was responsible, Lee Harvey Oswald being a ‘poor shot’ and that Secret Service had been warned Kennedy would be killed in August, three months before the murder.
The rollout of the files stunned Trump’s national security team, who spent 24 hours racing to assess security hazards ahead of publication.
When the files were released at around 7pm, it sparked widespread backlash, from liberals claiming it was just a repeat of a similar drop by Joe Biden years ago, to MAGA fans angered that the pages still contained redactions and left questions, leading experts to describe the files as ‘impenetrable.’
Experts have warned as they sift through the information that they do not expect the release to overturn the long understanding of what happened or earth-shattering reveals.
The document batch did not include annotations, what agency documents originated from, how they were linked together or whether they were found more credible than others to the investigation.
Its publication represents the fulfillment of a campaign promise from Trump, who had threatened to get the files out dating back to his first term in office.
The release early Tuesday evening included 2,182 PDF documents totaling 63,400 pages on the National Archives website more than 60 years after the president was shot and killed in Dallas
Among the files released include statements from Golitsyn’s administrative assistant Donald Deneslya, who spoke about the work done by Golitsyn, who used the code name ‘Stone’ and under the alias ‘John Stone’
While Trump’s team was working on getting the records out since the president returned to the White House in January, those plans were put into overdrive on Monday.
The president said during a media event at the Kennedy Center that the files were all going to be released on Tuesday.
National security analysts were scrambling to make sure there were no hazards in what they were about to publish with a supercharged deadline.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe had wanted to have everyone prepped on what was in the documents so that they wouldn’t be caught off guard, the New York Times reports.
The National Security Council put together an emergency call to make everyone aware of what they still had to un-redact.
Many had worries that confidential information would be revealed about people who were still alive.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, scoffed at the notion that anyone was left unaware that this was coming.
‘President Trump made a promise to release all of the JFK. files — and he is delivering on that promise. Anyone surprised by this hasn’t been paying attention or has been willfully ignorant.’
Historians speaking to the mainstream media have suggested there’s not much new out there in the JFK files and what’s been released is disorganized and will be hard to parse through regardless.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also claimed on X that Trump was ‘ushering in a new era of maximum transparency’ and that the files were being released ‘with no redactions.’
The files on JFK weren’t the only ones released, as documents pertaining to the assassinations of both Kennedy’s brother Robert and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Leading up to its release, Trump said it would be ‘interesting’ and the White House said Americans would be ‘shocked’ by revelations.
‘People have been waiting for decades for this,’ Trump said on Monday. ‘We have a tremendous amount of paper. You’ve got a lot of reading.’
Trump was for releasing the JFK files during his first term in office but thousands remained under seal.
During his 2024 campaign he vowed to make them public as part of his overall effort to increase government transparency.
He signed an executive order in January to declassify the remaining files.
