Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, whose 1991 film JFK portrayed President John F. Kennedy's assassination as the work of a shadowy government conspiracy, called Tuesday for a new congressional investigation of the killing during a hearing that aired conspiracy theories about it, the AP reports. The freewheeling hearing of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, where partisan grievances were aired, followed last month's release of thousands of pages of government documents related to the assassination. The task force's Republican chair opened the proceedings by questioning the Warren Commission investigation's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in fatally shooting Kennedy as his motorcade finished a parade route in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Stone's JFK was nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture, and won two. It grossed more than $200 million but was also dogged by questions about its historical accuracy. Stone told the committee that he believes decades of delays in releasing unredacted records had prevented "clarity" about who killed JFK. Stone also said a new investigation "outside all political considerations" should begin "at the scene of the crime" and reexamine all of the evidence from the day of the assassination. Scholars and historians have concluded that there's strong evidence that Oswald, a 24-year-old former Marine, acted alone in killing Kennedy, and they say the files President Trump ordered to be released showed nothing undercutting that conclusion.
The task force's chair, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, said she thinks the federal government under previous administrations had engaged in "stonewalling." "Can we return to a world where we can trust our government to level with us, the people for which this government exists?" Stone said. "This is our democracy. This is our presidency. It belongs to us." Democrats, meanwhile, were unconvinced. "What I find funny about this hearing is that the Republicans are here relitigating whether CIA agents lied 60 years ago," said Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whose Texas district includes part of Dallas.
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