Congresswoman Lauren Boebert appeared to confuse the filmmaker Oliver Stone with the conservative political strategist Roger Stone on Tuesday.
The Colorado Republican Representative made the error when speaking at a congressional hearing about the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy Jr.
The Context
President Donald Trump’s administration released the remaining files related to Kennedy’s assassination in March. The files were put out by the Department of Justice and posted to the National Archives and Record Administration’s website.
Trump had long promised to release the files, which consist of investigative reports, memos, communications and other documents related to the government’s investigation into the former president’s death.
AP
What To Know
Speaking during the hearing on Tuesday, Boebert said: “Mr. Stone you wrote a book accusing LBJ of being involved in the killing of president Kennedy. Do these most recent releases confirm or negate your initial charge… being involved in the assassination of president Kennedy.”
Oliver Stone responded: “No, I didn’t. If you look closely at the film, there’s no — it accuses the President Johnson of part, being part of, complicit in a cover-up of the case, but not in the assassination itself, which I don’t know.”
Journalist Jefferson Morley stepped in and told Boebert: “I think you’re confusing Mr. Oliver Stone with Mr. Roger Stone. It’s Roger Stone who implicated LBJ in the assassination of the president. It’s not my friend Oliver Stone.”
Boebert then replied: “I may have misinterpreted that and I apologize for that… But there seems to be some alluding of, like you said, incompetence or some sort of involvement there on the back end.” But she later added: “Sorry, I’m going to move on.”
Oliver Stone was testifying before the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets for a hearing on the JFK files.
The American director made the 1991 film JFK, which looked at questions surrounding Kennedy’s assassination.
Meanwhile, Roger Stone authored the 2013 book The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ.
What People Are Saying
Oliver Stone said in his opening statement on Tuesday: “I ask the committee to reopen what the Warren Commission failed miserably to complete. I ask you in good faith, outside of all political considerations, to reinvestigate the assassination of this President Kennedy from the scene of the crime to the courtroom.”
Trump said about the release of the JFK files in March: “They’ve been waiting for that for decades and I said during the campaign I’d do it, and I’m a man of my word.”
Republican Anna Paulina Luna, chairwoman of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, said in a statement: “By investigating the newly released JFK files, consulting experts, and tracking down surviving staff of various investigative committees, our task force will get to the bottom of this mystery and share our findings with the American people. Our hearing is the first step and we look forward to hearing from our witnesses.”
What Happens Next
Luna has said that the task force will get “to the bottom of this mystery” surrounding Kennedy’s assassination, and called Tuesday’s hearing the “first step.”
