Watch live: Oliver Stone testifies to Congress about new JFK assassination files
Oliver Stone testified to Congress on Tuesday about thousands of newly released government documents connected to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The hearing of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets follows a March release of thousands of pages of government documents related to the assassination.
JFK assassination files hearing
Local perspective:
Oliver Stone appeared before a House task force for the Tuesday hearing.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker told the committee that he believes decades of delays in releasing unredacted records had prevented "clarity" about who killed JFK.
According to the Associated Press, 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.
"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."
Stone directed the 1991 film "JFK" portrayed Kennedy’s murder as the work of a government conspiracy. The movie was nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture, and won two awards, according to the Associated Press.
The AP noted that the task force also heard from a witness called by Democrats who criticized the Trump administration's handling of the recent JFK document release.
FILE-Texas Governor John Connally adjusts his tie (foreground) as President John F. Kennedy (left) and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (in pink) sit in rear seats and prepare for a motorcade into the city in 1963. (Getty Images/Bettmann)
The task force also invited Jefferson Morley and James DiEugenio, who both have authored books about conspiracies behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. According to the Associated Press, Morley is editor of the JFK Facts blog and vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository for files related to the assassination.
Tuesday’s hearing comes 50 years after separate Senate and House investigations split on whether there was proof of a conspiracy behind Kennedy’s killing.
Was there a previous hearing investigating JFK’s assassination?
The backstory:
According to the Associated Press, the last formal congressional probe of President John F. Kennedy's assassination ended in 1978, when a House committee released a report concluding that the Soviet Union, Cuba, organized crime, the CIA and the FBI weren't involved, but the president "probably was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
In 1976, a Senate committee stated it had not found enough evidence "to justify a conclusion that there was a conspiracy."
RELATED: US unseals thousands of classified JFK assassination documents
The Warren Commission, appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, determined that Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old former Marine, acted alone in the deadly shooting of Kennedy as his motorcade completed a parade route in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Oswald was arrested and two days later, Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner, shot Oswald during a jail transfer broadcast on live television.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Associated Press and a Senate committee report. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.