Filmmaker Oliver Stone on Tuesday called for Congress to reopen the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, trying to revive unfounded conspiracy theories more than six decades after the 1963 killing that shook the nation.
Stone, who raised the theories in his 1991 movie “JFK,” testified before a House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets hearing on last month’s release of recently declassified records of the investigation.
“I ask the committee to reopen what the Warren Commission failed miserably to complete. I ask you, in good faith, outside all political considerations, to reinvestigate the assassination of this President Kennedy, from the scene of the crime to the courtroom,” he said in his opening remarks.
Stone, as he’s done before without providing conclusive evidence, took aim at the Central Intelligence Agency. “Let us reinvestigate the fingerprints of intelligence all over Lee Harvey Oswald from 1959 to 1960 his violent death in 1963 and most importantly this CIA, whose muddy footprints are all over,” he said.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone (C) arrives to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s Task Force on the declassification of federal secrets on the JFK files, following the recent release of files by the Trump administration, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
In March, the government hastily released more than 2000 documents totaling approximately 80,000 pages. Most of what the government released was not new — in fact, much of what attracted attention on social media and in news reports had long been in the public domain, except for minor redactions, such as the blacking out of personally-identifiable information of CIA sources or employees (names and addresses) that have now been disclosed.
The newly-declassified versions of these documents did not substantively change what is known about the central Warren Commission finding that Stone has called into question: that Oswald was the lone gunman.
But they did shed light on details of mid-20th century espionage that the CIA had fiercely fought to keep secret and that are treasure trove for historians and scholars.
Republican committee members on Tuesday pushed claims, also without evidence, about the investigations into JFK’s death, repeatedly getting facts surrounding the probes wrong and even yielding their time to allow witnesses to freely talk about theories rather than asking questions.
In this May 20, 2024, file photo, Oliver Stone attends the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.
Daniele Venturelli/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE
While praising the Trump administration for the release of the JFK documents, they also pushed unfounded claims that not all information has been made publicly available, questioning whether the public would ever truly know what happened.
Democrats on the subcommittee sought to focus on what they referenced as the truth, dissuading their colleagues and witnesses from drifting into conspiracy theories while criticizing the rollout of the declassified documents.
Stone’s film focused on the work of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who conducted an independent investigation of the assassination, resulting in his failed prosecution of New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw, who Garrison alleged was involved in a CIA conspiracy to kill the president.
The film was a commercial and critical success, grossing $205 million and winning two Academy Awards. It was credited with popularizing conspiracy theories of FBI and CIA involvement in the Kennedy assassination.
The film was credited by the Assassination Records Review Board as being at least partially responsible for the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. Stone testified before Congress in support of that bill. The act mandated the release of all documents related to the assassination by 2017, though that timeline was delayed several times.
The movie’s release also coincided with an increased degree of public skepticism in the Warren Commission finding that Oswald acted alone.
Gallup polling as recent as 2023 has consistently shown that a majority of Americans has consistently believed more than one person was responsible for the assassination. The number believing the official conclusion of a lone gunman saw a sharp decline in the 1970s and 1980s, reaching an all-time low of 10% in 1992.
ABC News’ Ely Brown contributed to this report.
