Jasmine Crockett Uses JFK Assassination Hearing to Denounce Signal-Gate, CIA Involvement in JFK Assassination

Crockett: “...who had an opportunity to practice law, so when you start talking about things such as chain of custody, these are the things that I used to challenge all the time as a defense attorney. And the reason that I had to make sure that I was here, and specifically on today, is because on November 22nd, 1963, Texas 30th Congressional District, the district that I represent, became the site of one of the most tragic events in American political history. After being struck by the bullets of an assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Hospital where hardworking physicians from the UT Southwestern Medical Center worked tirelessly to resuscitate him. During the 48 hours, between the moment President Kennedy was shot to the moment when Oswald was pronounced dead, Texas 30th Congressional District became the temporary seat of the U.S. government, the temporary seat of the Texas government, the site of the 35th president’s death, and the center of the world’s attention. While I value government accountability and transparency, like most of my colleagues, nearly all the previously classified JFK assassination files are now public and show no evidence of a CIA conspiracy. But what I find funny about this hearing is that the Republicans are here relitigating whether CIA agents lied 60 years ago, but aren’t doing anything about the CIA director lying to Congress just six days ago. We should be having a hearing on the fact that the unqualified secretary of defense and other senior Trump officials were carelessly discussing classified military plans over an unsecured Signal group chat. And instead of providing oversight over the administration’s handling of classified information, the Republicans have spent a week trying to convince the American people that the military plans were not classified. So instead of giving a platform to conspiracy theories — and let me be clear, there are holes, I don’t want y’all to think that I don’t think that there are holes, but when we’re looking back, we need to look back so that we can look forward and hopefully do better. So that is why I’m bringing us to present day. It might be helpful if we walk everyone through the classification and declassification process, since the Republicans have decided to do it this way. Federal law defines classified information as ‘information or material’ requiring a specific degree of protection against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national security. Federal law also defined disclosure as ‘communicating, providing, transmitting, transferring, conveying, publishing or otherwise making available. Congress has long enacted classified information laws that forbid the disclosure of classified information. Separately, Executive Order, 13526 puts in place a uniform system for classifying and declassifying national security information. According to the executive order, classified information includes the following: ‘military plans, weapons systems or operations, intelligence activities including covert actions, intelligence sources or methods, and foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources.’ Under the ‘general responsibilities provision of the executive order... heads of agencies shall ensure the agency records system are designed and maintained to optimize the appropriate sharing and safeguarding of classified information and help facilitate its declassification,’ not to mention that it’s also illegal under federal law to destroy classified documents and information. So this administration is breaking law by discussing classified information over unsecured channels and breaking the law by destroying the evidence of the conversations. We wouldn’t be able to have today’s hearing if the CIA destroyed the records associated with the assassination of President Kennedy. So, Mr. Morley, wouldn’t it be impossible for you to accurately report on the JFK assassination if the CIA and FBI deleted all documents, like the Trump Administration officials plan to do in the Signal group chat?”