Former CIA Officer May Know Why Trump Is Holding Back on Releasing Some of the JFK Files

Ex-CIA officer Phil Mudd told CNN Thursday that he believes he knows why President Donald Trump decided to withhold some of the JFK files that were set to be released to the public.

His theory is that the files contain sensitive information about overseas FBI and CIA agents or informants who could be endangered by having their covers blown.

“I’m going to bet this is about protecting people. It’s not about whether there’s a plot that the American people don’t understand. It’s people," Mudd said. "Back after this assassination, you can guarantee that the FBI and CIA were talking to everybody they knew overseas in countries like Russia, Cuba, Mexico, about what happened and whether they had information in these foreign governments about the assassin. Those conversations might have been with government officials and might have been with paid informants.”

It's not an exciting answer for the conspiracy theorists. But the explanation is plausible, since intelligence agencies reportedly aren't trying to block the files indefinitely, just review them more closely over the next 180 days.

Although, as the CNN discussion highlights, some are asking why intelligence agencies wouldn't already have been prepared for a release of files that's been scheduled for two decades.

Watch the full segment below.