The US spy agency misled congressional investigators about John F. Kennedy’s alleged assassin, according to a whistleblower cited by the outlet
CIA officials misled the US Congress about the movements of the man accused of killing President John F. Kennedy shortly before the assassination and boasted about doing so, Axios has reported, citing former CIA-State Department historian turned whistleblower Thomas Pearcy.
For decades, activists and researchers have demanded full disclosure of all records related to Kennedy’s killing on November 22, 1963. Many have questioned whether Lee Harvey Oswald, the man charged with the murder, acted alone or was even responsible.
The still-classified document described by Pearcy – in a CIA inspector general’s report – allegedly shows how intelligence officials “routinely have covered up facts and records” about Kennedy’s assassination.
According to the whistleblower, the report functioned as a CIA damage assessment examining how the agency’s reputation had been affected by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which reopened the JFK investigation in the late 1970s.
Pearcy said the file included a 1978 memo in which a CIA officer bragged that he and two colleagues misled HSCA chief counsel Robert Blakey by presenting him with sanitized versions of the Mexico City Station files connected to Oswald. The investigation eventually ruled that JFK was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy” though it could not identify who else might have been involved.
Oswald allegedly visited Mexico City in late September 1963, seeking visas from the Cuban Consulate and the Soviet Embassy that would allow him to travel to Cuba and potentially on to the USSR. He was monitored by US intelligence because both missions were under routine CIA surveillance.
The historian said that he found the report by accident in 2009 while working in a secure CIA room. He also recalled seeing references to photos, cameras, and possibly film labeled “Oswald in Mexico,” despite the CIA’s longstanding denial that such material exists.
Researchers are now pressing the agency to release the document as the 62nd anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination approaches, Axios said. A CIA spokesperson told the outlet the agency would attempt to locate the report.
After taking office, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order for full disclosure of JFK files.
