The U.S. will "unfortunately" continue to delay the public release of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and officials say the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame.

The move was announced in a memo signed by President Biden and released by the White House Friday.

Biden on Friday said the need to protect records “has only grown weaker with the passage of time” and that he agreed it was critical the U.S. government “maximizes transparency.”

“Almost 30 years since the Act, the profound national tragedy of President Kennedy’s assassination continues to resonate in American history and in the memories of so many Americans who were alive on that terrible day,” Biden wrote. “It is therefore critical to ensure that the United States Government maximizes transparency, disclosing all information in records concerning the assassination, except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise.”

"Temporary continued postponement is necessary to protect against identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure," Biden wrote.

In 1992, Congress ruled that "all Government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy … should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination." 

 

The act allowed the government to postpone the release to "protect against an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement or the conduct of foreign relations," according to Biden's memo.

This year, the National Archives and Records Administration ruled that "unfortunately, the pandemic has had a significant impact on the agencies," and NARA needed additional time to research the material and "maximize the amount of information released," the memo said.

The most sensitive information will now be released in December 2022, and material that has already been deemed "appropriate for release to the public," will be dumped on Dec. 15 of this year.