Congress Must Hold the CIA Accountable in the Wake of Recent JFK Assassination Revelations

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy remains one of the most defining moments in our nation’s history. Recent disclosures by the Central Intelligence Agency related to that tragic event raise disturbing questions that demand serious, bipartisan scrutiny—not more delay, not more obfuscation, and certainly not more secrecy. The American people deserve the truth.  

For the sake of our republic, Republicans and Democrats must stand united in the belief that accountability, transparency, and the public’s right to know transcend partisanship—especially when it comes to the actions of our intelligence agencies.  

It is in that spirit that I am calling for renewed congressional oversight into the conduct of the CIA in relation to Kennedy’s murder, and specifically the agency’s handling of key information immediately before and since that tragic day.  

It has been almost 62 years since JFK was killed, but the assassination remains a current and important story because the CIA lied for six decades about what it knew in the years, months, weeks, and days leading up to Nov. 22, 1963. For that reason, Congress and the American public should welcome the recent document releases and increased oversight.  

In the past year, thanks to President Donald Trump’s executive order, the work of the House Oversight Committee Task Force led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, and tenacious investigative reporting by journalists such as Tom Jackman in The Washington Post and Jefferson Morley in JFK Facts, we have seen a breakthrough in the release of documents that were unnecessarily hidden for decades.  

Because of this pressure on government agencies to comply with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, additional documents that had been suppressed have now been released in full.  

One revelation in the new disclosures is that CIA officer George Joannides has been confirmed to be the previously unidentified case officer known by the alias “Howard,” who supervised a CIA-sponsored Cuban exile group in Miami in the early 1960s. “Howard” oversaw operations involving accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and the anti-Castro group Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil in the summer and fall of 1963. This CIA admission is nothing short of astonishing. It places Oswald in direct contact with a CIA-supervised and financed operation just months before he allegedly killed the president. For decades, the CIA denied, downplayed, or dismissed this link.  

Equally troubling is the CIA’s role in assigning Joannides—the same officer who had overseen Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil activities in 1963—as the agency’s liaison to the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the late 1970s, without disclosing this glaring conflict of interest to Congress. Joannides’s dual role as both a key figure in the events under investigation and, years later, the CIA gatekeeper to congressional investigators constitutes a staggering breach of trust. The agency’s lack of disclosure raises serious questions about obstruction of justice and institutional integrity.  

In July 1981, shortly after his work stonewalling Congress, the CIA awarded Joannides the Career Intelligence Medal. The citation memo accompanying the award—kept secret until recently—details that Joannides received the honor, in part, for his 1978 assignment as CIA liaison to the House Select Committee. According to public statements by a top committee investigator, Dan Hardway, Joannides primary role in that position was to limit congressional access to key files. The CIA praised Joannides effort as “outstanding” and described the liaison post as an “unusual special assignment.” Rewarding officials for obstructing Congress—a felony—demands further congressional investigation.  

This is not a conspiracy theory. These are documented facts—confirmed by the CIA itself. And still, thousands of pages related to the assassination remain redacted or withheld. That is unacceptable.  

Congress has a constitutional oversight responsibility, and the CIA, like every agency in our government, must be accountable to the people. We cannot permit a culture of secrecy to override the public’s right to know the full history of how and why a sitting president was murdered.  

That is why I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support a renewed investigation into the CIA’s handling of this matter, including additional hearings and the full release of all remaining JFK assassination documents. I would also support legislation to ensure that the JFK Act of 1992 and Trump’s executive order are fully complied with.  

Though the murder of Kennedy occurred over six decades ago, it remains a relevant and timely issue because of the CIA’s conduct in the years since. The assassination changed the course of American history. The cover-up of facts related to it undermines our democracy and the public’s faith in government.  

To be clear, I believe that the CIA plays a vital role in protecting the United States when functioning within the rule of law. But the agency’s sustained suppression of truth regarding the murder of the president demands accountability. We owe that to the American people. We owe it to history. We owe it to our constitutional system. And most of all, we owe it to the memory of President John F. Kennedy.  

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