WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), the Trump-endorsed chairwoman of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, announced on May 26, 2026, the appointment of veteran Washington journalist and CIA scholar Jefferson Morley as an official adviser to the task force as it prepares what she described as a comprehensive report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — a case that has gone unresolved for more than six decades.
Luna Announces Morley’s Appointment
In a formal press release issued through the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Luna described the appointment as a pivotal step toward delivering long-sought answers to the American public. “Today, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Jefferson Morley as an adviser to the Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets as it prepares its report on the status of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy following President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14176,” Luna said in the announcement. “His appointment will support the Task Force’s ongoing work to advance greater transparency regarding one of the most consequential unresolved chapters in American history.”
The release, issued for immediate distribution, formally introduced Morley to the task force’s broader mandate: to deliver a thorough public accounting of where the JFK assassination record stands following Trump’s sweeping declassification order signed in January 2025.
Who Is Jefferson Morley?
Morley brings decades of experience on the subject to his new advisory role. He is the vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository for records related to the Kennedy assassination. The foundation sponsors the largest online archive of JFK assassination records and has been at the center of nearly every major legal and legislative push to force the government to release those documents. Morley is also the author of three books on the CIA and is widely regarded as one of the foremost independent authorities on the events surrounding November 22, 1963.
His credentials with this subject run deep. Morley spent a decade-long investigative journey pursuing CIA records related to a covert agency officer who, it emerged, had been the case officer for a Cuban exile group that had multiple interactions with Lee Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1963. That investigation ultimately resulted in federal litigation against the CIA. In the course of his research, Morley has documented that a senior CIA counterintelligence official had a 180-page file on Oswald on his desk just one week before Kennedy traveled to Dallas.
Luna’s release described Morley in unambiguous terms: “Mr. Morley is a veteran Washington journalist and vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which sponsors the largest online archive of JFK assassination records. He is the author of three books on the CIA and is widely regarded as one of the leading authorities on the events surrounding November 1963.”
The Task Force and Its Mission
The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets was established in February 2025 under the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, with the mission of examining the declassification of materials in the public interest. Its formation followed directly on the heels of Trump’s executive action. On January 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14176, titled “Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” taking what the administration described as a first step toward shedding light on events that had long been clouded by opacity and kept from the public under the guise of classification.
The order stated that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was “not consistent with the public interest” and that the release of those records was “long overdue.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) tapped Luna to lead the task force, saying at the time that “for too long, the federal government has kept information of public interest classified and the American people are demanding greater transparency,” adding that the secrecy had “sowed distrust in our institutions.”
Morley’s Prior Role With the Task Force
Morley’s appointment as adviser was a natural progression of an already established working relationship with the panel. In March 2025, Luna named Morley as a witness before the task force’s first major hearing on the JFK files, held on April 1, 2025, alongside filmmaker Oliver Stone and researcher James DiEugenio. That hearing came shortly after the Trump administration’s initial release of documents under the executive order.
Following the early tranche of record releases, Morley called the disclosures “an encouraging start,” noting that much of what he described as “rampant overclassification of trivial information” had been eliminated from the documents. He also noted, however, that the first release did not include two-thirds of the promised files, any of the recently discovered FBI files, or 500 Internal Revenue Service records.
What This Means for Americans
The appointment signals that the task force is moving from the hearing phase into a final reporting phase — one that could produce the most detailed congressional account of the Kennedy assassination record in a generation. Luna stated that the task force “looks forward to his assistance in publishing a comprehensive report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in the near future.”
For the millions of Americans who have long questioned what the federal government knows and has withheld about the November 1963 killing, the report represents a potentially defining moment. The Mary Ferrell Foundation itself previously sued the Biden administration to force the release of remaining assassination documents, with Morley stating plainly: “It’s high time that the government got its act together and obeyed the spirit and the letter of the law. This is about our history and our right to know it.”
The National Archives, acting in response to Executive Order 14176, has confirmed that its efforts to digitize all records in the JFK Assassination Records Collection have been prioritized since the order’s issuance, with newly declassified records being made available online on a rolling basis.
Luna’s Role and Her Alliance With Trump
Luna has been one of Congress’s most aggressive advocates for government transparency across a broad range of classified subjects. When she accepted the chairmanship of the task force, Luna stated: “The federal government has been hiding information from Americans for decades. We have spent years seeking information on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, Reverend King, and other government secrets without success. It is time to give Americans the answers they deserve.”
Under Luna’s leadership, the task force’s mandate extends beyond the Kennedy assassination, with additional investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena, the origins of COVID-19, and the 9/11 files.
Luna has carried Trump’s full backing since her first congressional campaign, with Trump describing her as “a great fighter” who “puts America First” and an Air Force veteran committed to “strong borders, serving our Veterans.” Trump’s endorsement has been a defining feature of her political profile. That alliance has translated directly into the task force’s mandate — one that tracks closely with Trump’s own stated goal of stripping away decades of federal secrecy on some of the most sensitive chapters in American history.
With Morley now formally embedded in the task force’s work, the panel moves into what Luna has framed as its most consequential phase: producing a public report on what the United States government actually knows — and has long concealed — about the death of its 35th president.