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 / Updated By Ken Dilanian, Alex Johnson and Corky Siemaszko 
 
 The National Archives published nearly 3,000 previously sealed or censored documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Thursday, but the White House said it was delaying the release of others. 
 
 Under a 1992 law inspired by the conspiracist movie "JFK," the National Archives was supposed to have released all of the remaining records by midnight ET — unless President Donald Trump objected on national security grounds. 
 
 In the end, the president allowed the release of 2,891 of at least 3,140 documents, with the rest subject to a 180-day review of redactions from objecting agencies. The White House said later that the remaining records would be released "on a rolling basis in the coming weeks." 
 
 "I am ordering today that the veil finally be lifted," Trump wrote in a memo announcing the delay Thursday evening. 
 
 "At the same time, executive departments and agencies have proposed to me that certain information should continue to be redacted because of national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns," he wrote. "I have no choice — today — but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our Nation's security." 
 
 Still, he warned that agency heads should be "extremely circumspect" in asking for further postponing the release of any of the documents, saying: "The need for continued protection can only have grown weaker with the passage of time." 
 
 President John F. Kennedy's motorcade in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Newseum / PRNewsfoto file 
 
 Trump "wants to ensure there is full transparency here," a senior administration official said at a briefing. He is "expecting agencies to do a better job in reducing conflict within redactions and get this information out as quickly as possible." 
 
 The CIA said in a statement that the redactions were meant to protect information that would "harm national security — including the names of CIA assets and current and former CIA officers, as well as specific intelligence methods and partnerships that remain viable to protecting the nation today." 
 
 "Every single one of the approximately 18,000 remaining CIA records in the collection will ultimately be released, with no document withheld in full," the agency said. 
 
 Trump, no stranger to conspiracy theories about the Kennedy killing, had appeared eager to get the latest JFK documents out. 
 
 The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow. So interesting! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2017 
 
 As journalists, scholars and assassination buffs began scouring the thousands of pages Thursday night, it remained to be seen whether the document dump would satisfy the many people who still dispute the finding of the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he gunned down Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. 
 
 The assassination shocked the nation and spawned a conspiracy industry that continues to pump out alternative theories about who was really behind the killing. 
 
 Officials at the National Archives made a point of trying to tamp down expectations that the newest batch of documents contains any blockbuster revelations — and they have noted repeatedly that about 90 percent of the available records related to the assassination are already public. 
 
 Related: What Could Be in the New Kennedy Assassination Records? 
 
 Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who used his body to shield the mortally wounded president and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy after the first shots rang out in Dallas, said earlier Thursday that he hoped the latest declassified papers shed light on why Oswald pulled the trigger. 
 
 "I'm hoping that within that material — and there's lots of it — there will be some indication as to the motive, the reason why he did what he did," Hill told MSNBC. 
 
 Hill said he still blames himself for not having reacted faster when the presidential motorcade came under fire. 
 
 "Deep down, I still have that sense of guilt that I should have been able to get there quicker and I didn't," he said. "I was the only one who had a chance to do anything." 
 
 The paperwork that was scheduled to be unveiled on Thursday has already been vetted by the Assassination Records Review Board, a panel created in the aftermath of Oliver Stone's 1991 conspiracy film "JFK," which popularized the notion that Kennedy was killed by rogue FBI and CIA agents. 
 
 The ARRB released the bulk of the JFK assassination paperwork two years after it was founded. The new documents were marked "NBR," or Not Believed Relevant, the panel's chairman, John Tunheim, said in March at a National Press Club conference in Washington. 
 
 "It's not that important to keep protecting it," he said. Still, he added, "I think there will be stuff interesting to researchers." 
 
 PHOTOS: JFK Assassination: The Day the President Was Shot 
 
 About 200 pages of the new batch are expected to delve into the six-day visit that Oswald, a onetime Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union, made to Mexico City just before Kennedy's assassination. One of the juiciest stories is likely to be that of June Cobb, a CIA spy working in Cuba and Mexico, who reported that Oswald had been spotted in Mexico City. 
 
 Cobb, born Viola June Cobb in Ponca City, Oklahoma, died Oct. 17, 2015, in New York, where she was living in a Manhattan senior center, an official there and her former sister-in-law told NBC News. 
 
 Tunheim said in March that the CIA, the State Department and other federal agencies balked at releasing the Mexico City paperwork "because it was thought to be detrimental to our relationship with the Mexican government at the time." ||||| From Mr. Trump’s memorandum: 
 
 The American public expects — and deserves — its Government to provide as much access as possible to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records (records) so that the people may finally be fully informed about all aspects of this pivotal event. Therefore, I am ordering today that the veil finally be lifted. At the same time, executive departments and agencies (agencies) have proposed to me that certain information should continue to be redacted because of national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns. I have no choice — today — but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our Nation’s security. To further address these concerns, I am also ordering agencies to re-review each and every one of those redactions over the next 180 days. At the end of that period, I will order the public disclosure of any information that the agencies cannot demonstrate meets the statutory standard for continued postponement of disclosure under section 5(g) (2)(D) of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (44 U.S.C. 2107 note) (the “Act”). 
 
 The decision to postpone the release of some documents will invariably lead to suspicions that the government is still protecting secrets about the case. Administration officials said there was no cover-up, just an effort to avoid compromising national security, law enforcement or intelligence gathering methods. 
 
 Researchers found a treasure trove of ‘obscure clues’ and ‘shiny objects.’ 
 
 Larry J. Sabato, the founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, and a team of researchers were reviewing the files on Thursday night. He sent a report of what they had found so far: 
 
 As expected, these incomplete raw files are, often, a mess. Handwritten notes from the C.I.A. and others are often illegible. It will take an enormous amount of work and lots of time to put this together. Think of this as an unassembled million-piece puzzle. 
 
 Since the good stuff has mainly been withheld for now — or forever — we are primarily looking for obscure clues and shiny objects. Here, the files do not disappoint. In no particular order, our research team at the University of Virginia found these intriguing documents: 
 
 • Mexico was a cooperative partner with the United States in many ways — from helping to wiretap the Soviet and Cuban Embassies well prior to the assassination, to thorough attempts to investigate Lee Harvey Oswald’s ties in the country after Kennedy’s murder. Sources told the C.I.A. that Oswald had deposited $5,000 in a Mexican bank. In a document dated March 9, 1964, Mexico was reported to have traced all deposits in Mexican banks, looking for the money. They found no such Oswald transaction. 
 
 • The F.B.I. closely monitored the activities of attorney and conspiracy advocate Mark Lane, who was representing Marguerite Oswald, mother of Lee. According to an F.B.I. source, a bizarre meeting Mr. Lane had with a Polish journalist in January 1964 saw wild conspiracy theories tossed around, including a ridiculous claim in a far-right Italian newspaper that J.D. Tippit, the Dallas policeman killed by Oswald shortly after Oswald shot Kennedy, was the real presidential assassin — and that Jack Ruby had killed Mr. Tippit. 
 
 • A C.I.A. document alleges that Oswald may have been accompanied on his mysterious September 1963 trip to Mexico City by “El Mexicano.” According to another document, “El Mexicano” is believed to have been Francisco Rodriguez Tamayo, the captain of Cuban Rebel Army 57 until he defected to the United States in June of 1959. A third file also identifies Rodriguez Tamayo as the head of the anti-Castro Training Camp at Pontchartrain, La. ||||| The last batch of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released Thursday by the National Archives. 
 
 The 19,045 documents — the largest batch to date — represent the final release under a directive from President Trump Donald John TrumpAvenatti ‘still considering’ presidential run despite domestic violence arrest Mulvaney positioning himself to be Commerce Secretary: report Kasich: Wouldn’t want presidential run to ‘diminish my voice’ MORE. 
 
 The federal government hit an Oct. 26, 2017, deadline to release thousands of documents related to the 1963 assassination in compliance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. 
 
 Trump actively encouraged the release of the long anticipated files last year to “put any and all conspiracy theories to rest.” 
 
 Trump then provided agencies with temporary certification until this Thursday to allow for re-review of all documents withheld to release "as much as possible." 
 
 Ultimately, at the request of the FBI and CIA, Trump blocked the release of some of the original records. Those records were not part of the final batch released Thursday and may never be released. 
 
 The administration released all related JFK documents other than the names and addresses of any mentioned person who is still living. 
 
 "I have no choice today but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our Nation's security," Trump said in October. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Back in October, President Donald Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, agreeing to appeals from the CIA and FBI. 
 
 Now, Trump has accepted a recommendation from the National Archives to keep the lid closed, more than five decades after the 35th president was killed. 
 
 Trump writes in memo issued Thursday that some of the classified documents are "of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure." The FBI and CIA had said the release could jeopardize national security. 
 
 The president ordered agencies to review the remaining documents in the next three years to determine which should be released. 
 
 Congress ordered in 1992 that all records be released in 25 years to put consistent conspiracy theories to rest.
– The can has been kicked a little farther down the road. When President Trump in October approved the release of previously classified or redacted documents on the JFK assassination, he blocked the release of others over national security concerns and gave federal agencies 180 days to re-review the withheld documents. The review in some cases turned up "identifiable national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns," per a memo written by Trump, who on Thursday said some files would now be kept under wraps until Oct. 26, 2021. He wrote that some files are "of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure," per the AP, but he ordered that they be reviewed over the next three years, and that any that can be released be made public immediately. The Dallas Morning News reports roughly 19,000 documents were released Thursday by the National Archives—the largest batch thus far, notes the Hill; 520 remain fully sealed. In his memo, Trump included a hopeful note for the curious: "The need for continued protection can only grow weaker with the passage of time from this congressional finding." (Some were hoping files would be released this week that would shed light on a 1971 suicide.)