The 1992 law, the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, was passed by Congress in response to the furor created by Oliver Stone's conspiracy-laden hit film "JFK," which was released the year before. As a result of the law, millions of pages of documents related to the assassination were made public in the 1990s--but not all.

A relatively small fraction--the 3,100 documents that the public has never seen, as well as the full text of more than 30,000 files previously released only in part--have been held back until now. Most of those documents were created inside the CIA, the FBI and the Justice Department. Under the law, however, everything must be released, in full, by next Thursday unless Trump decides otherwise.

Until now, Trump, himself no stranger to conspiracy theories, including a seemingly bizarre theory offered during last year's presidential campaign that connected JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald to the father of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, has given no clue in public on his plans for the JFK documents. (Cruz and his father adamantly deny the allegations of a family tie to Oswald.)