Dear Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D.N.Y.) Chair of House Oversight

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D. N.Y.)

Chairwomen of the House Oversight Committee

2157 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington D.C. 20515

Phone (202) 225-5051

Fax (202) 225-4784

January 20, 2020

Dear Rep. Carolyn Maloney,

As the new chair of the House Oversight Committee, you have assumed a powerful position that requires you to represent all of the citizens of this country and not just your constituents.

One of the major tasks assigned to your committee is the oversight of the laws of this land and ensure compliance. One of these laws is the JFK Act of 1992 (44 U.S.C. - 2107), unanimously passed by Congress and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in October 1992. This law was passed because of the overwhelming public response to Oliver Stone’s film “JFK,” which noted in a trailer that the government’s assassination records were sealed and kept from the public. The law required all of the government’s records on the assassination of President Kennedy be released to the public in full twenty-five years after the passage of the act – in October 2017.

While millions of documents have been released, there remains many tens of thousands more that are being withheld or redacted because President Trump was convinced, at the last hour, to continue withholding these records for reasons of national security. Even the Archivist’s letter of recommendation to the President is still sealed.

As Federal Judge John Tunheim, former chairman of the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) told members of CAPA – Citizens Against Political Assassinations at the National Press Club, there are no records from over fifty years ago that could reasonably be considered a threat to our national security.

Because this law has been legally thwarted by the administration, because there are many destroyed, missing and wrongfully withheld assassination records, and because the American people require the full truth about these mattes, it is imperative that Congress provide proper Oversight of the law, as the Constitution requires. The last Congressional oversight hearing on the JFK Act occurred over twenty years ago, when the life of the ARRB was extended by one year to allow it to complete its job.

Now the House Oversight Committee is responsible for providing the proper oversight of this law in order to account for the destroyed, missing and wrongfully withheld records, release the remaining sealed and redacted records in full as the law required, and permit the Archivist of the United States to inform the President, Congress and the American people that the law has been upheld, and the last secret record on the assassination of President Kennedy has been released.

As a journalist and historian who has been reporting on these matters, I would like to be informed of when a JFK Act Oversight hearing is scheduled so I can attend.

Thank you for your time and attention and good luck in your new position, 

|William Kelly

 P.O. Box 250

 New Lisbon, New Jersey, 08064

(billkelly3@gmail.com – 609-346-0229)