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President Donald Trump, the one man able to block the release, did not intend to make this easy. Like much else surrounding investigations of the November 1963 killing of President John F. Kennedy, Thursday’s release of 2,800 records from the JFK files was anything but smooth. It came together only at the last minute, with White House lawyers still fielding late-arriving requests for additional redactions in the morning and an irritated President Trump continuing to resist signing off on the request, according to an account by two White House officials. The tale of the final hours before the congressionally mandated 25-year release deadline adds a new chapter to the story of President Trump's troubled relationship with his spy agencies.

The President and White House have been very clear with all agencies for weeks: They must be transparent and disclose all information possible White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah

He again flashed his skepticism and unpredictability in dealing with agencies long accustomed to a level of deference. And those officials had their own story tell, some rejecting the notion they were slow to act on President Trump's expectations for the documents. The CIA began work months ago to get its remaining assassination-related documents ready for release on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the process. The person, who was not authorised to publicly discuss the process and spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the goal was to have all the agency's documents ready to be released in full or with national security redactions before the deadline.

GETTY President Trump is unsatisfied with the pace of declassification of the JFK files

Since taking office, President Trump has challenged the integrity of intelligence leaders, moved to exert more control over US spying agencies and accused his predecessor of using government spycraft to monitor his campaign. In the JFK files matter, one White House official said, President Trump wanted to make clear he wouldn't be bullied by the agencies. Whatever occurred in the lead-up to deadline day, President Trump was irritated Thursday that agencies still were arguing for more redactions. The president earlier in the week had tweeted to tease the release of the documents, heightening the sense of drama on a subject that has sparked the imaginations of conspiracy theorists for decades.

JFK assassination in pictures Fri, October 27, 2017 John Fitzgerald Kennedy was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 18 The motorcade of President John F. Kennedy is shown cruising down Main Street in Dallas moments before shots were fired at his limousine. (Nov. 22, 1963)

Under a 1992 law, all of the records related to the assassination were to be made public unless explicitly withheld by the president. Just before the release Thursday, President Trump wrote in a memorandum that he had "no choice" but to agree to requests from the CIA and FBI to keep thousands of documents secret because of the possibility that releasing the information could still harm national security. Two aides said President Trump was upset by what he perceived to be overly broad secrecy requests, adding that the agencies had been explicitly warned about his expectation that redactions be kept to a minimum. "The President and White House have been very clear with all agencies for weeks: They must be transparent and disclose all information possible," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said Friday.

GETTY President Trump wants to disclose the JFK files in their entirety to put to rest conspiracy theories

Late last week, President Trump received his first official briefing on the release in an Oval Office meeting that included Chief of Staff John Kelly, White House Counsel Don McGahn and National Security Council legal adviser John Eisenberg. President Trump made it clear he was unsatisfied with the pace of declassification. President Trump’s tweets, an official said, were meant as a signal to the intelligence community to take seriously his threats to release the documents in their entirety. According to White House officials, President Trump accepted that some of the records contained references to sensitive sources and methods used by the intelligence community and law enforcement and that declassification could harm American foreign policy interests. But after having the scope of the redactions presented to him, President Trump told aides he did not believe them to be in the spirit of the law.