The US National Archive is under pressure to release thousands of documents pertaining to the November 22, 1963, assassination of President John F Kennedy.
The release of previously classified documents was kept under wraps by the archive since 1992.
It is now up to US President Donald Trump to give his final seal of approval on the release, but with the clock ticking away, concerns are mounting about the delay.
Why have the JFK files still not been published?
When President George Bush signed the John F Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, the files were expected to be released in 25 years on October 26, 2017.
This technically means the National Archive has time until midnight to fulfil the arrangements of the Act.
And the Archive has all of the documents ready to go – nearly 35,000 of them – but is reportedly being kept from publishing the long-awaited documents.
The files are being held up by a US Government agency scrutinising them for any details that could hinder matters of national security, according to the Mirror.
If the CIA, FBI or NSA pin-point anything deemed dangerous for the US, they will have to flag it with the US President who will then be in his rights to withhold the appropriate documents.
Last weekend Mr Trump tweeted: “Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.”
Yesterday he also teased: “The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow. So interesting!”
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JFK files: President John F Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963
However if the US President fails to give the green light by midnight, then the National Archives will still be in their right to declassify the JFK files.
Once ready, the files will be made available for download on the official National Archives Website.
What is in the JFK files?
Conspiracists who believe that John F Kennedy’s death was part of a larger plot are hoping to finally discover proof of their theories.
But JFK expert Mark White is doubtful that the documents will give theorists the answers that they desperately crave.
The professor of history at Queen Mary University in London, told Express.co.uk: “For many years now most Americans have believed that some sort of conspiracy lay behind the assassination of America’s most glamorous president, John F Kennedy – that it was not a case of Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone.
JFK: The Assassination in pictures
Wed, November 23, 2016
John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy, commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
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President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline photographed just moments before Kennedy was assasinated. Nov 22, 1963.
“As the new documents released on the assassination will not prove conclusively that Oswald did act alone, it seems clear that conspiracy theories will continue to appeal to most Americans.
The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow
“What will be interesting to see is the light the new documentation sheds on the role played by key US government agencies, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, before and after Kennedy’s murder.
“Surely the release of these documents has been authorised by Donald Trump without the backing of all those working in the upper echelons of the FBI and the CIA.”
Fellow historian, Dr Alex Goodall from University College London, is also unconvinced that the files will offer any major bombshell revelation.
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JFK files: The declassified documents were part of the FBI and CIA’s investigations
He told Express.co.uk: “I think we can be pretty sure that, whatever emerges from these documents, the conspiracy theories will persist.
“Such theories are driven by the tremendous significance of Kennedy’s assassination, and the belief that the truth about it has been deliberately hidden from public eyes.
“Either this tranche of material will include nuggets of information that fuel the suspicions of the suspicious, or it’ll end up primarily of interest to historians.
“If it’s the latter, the conspiracy theorists will argue that the real story is yet to be uncovered.”