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stated on March 18, 2025 in a post on Facebook:

Files reveal that John F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a 1994 letter calling then-Sen. Joe Biden “a traitor” before Kennedy’s 1999 death.

John F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the late President John F. Kennedy, listens to a question from the audience during a panel discussion at Harvard University, in this 1997 file photo. Kennedy Jr. died in 1999. (AP)

By Madison Czopek March 20, 2025

No, JFK Jr. didn’t write a letter saying that former President Joe Biden was ‘a traitor’

If Your Time is short

Social media posts circulated part of a record from the FBI’s investigation into a 1994 threat letter that was mailed to then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden. That letter was signed "John F. Kennedy Jr.," but the FBI never named a suspect in its investigation.
FBI records said the letter’s handwriting was analyzed and four latent fingerprints were developed, but noted authorities closed the investigation after concluding there were "no suspects at this time wherein latent comparisons can be made."
In 2020, a historian and Kennedy biographer told us that the FBI "did not believe" JFK Jr. wrote the letter and dismissed it as a hoax.

See the sources for this fact-check

Days into his second term, President Donald Trump ordered national intelligence officials to plan "for the full and complete release" of all records pertaining to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. On March 18, the government released thousands of pages of records and prompted renewed online discussion about the Kennedy family.

Some social media posts honed in on an apparent link to former President Joe Biden.

"Joe Biden implicated in JFK files," said one March 18 Facebook post from a pro-Trump account. "Files reveal JFK Jr. penned a letter to Joe Biden before his (death) beginning with.. ️Dear Senator Biden, ‘You are a traitor…’"

The words accompanied a slightly blurry image of an FBI document dated Sept. 16, 1994. Using red circles and yellow highlights, someone focused on the name "Sen. Joseph Biden" and the words "‘Dear Sen. Biden: You are a traitor … ’ and bearing the signature ‘John F. Kennedy Jr.’"

Another March 18 Facebook post shared the image and said: "Part of the JFK files that were released tonight. What do you notice?"

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Variations of the narrative also circulated on X: Actor Russell Brand and Newsmax host David Harris Jr. posted about this purported link between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Biden.

The Facebook posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screengrab from Facebook)

The document at the heart of these social media posts wasn’t one of the records released March 18. It is part of the FBI’s investigation into a 1994 death threat letter that was mailed to Biden, who was a U.S. senator at the time. That letter was signed "John F. Kennedy Jr.," but that doesn’t make it authentic. The FBI never named a suspect in its investigation.

What does the document from the social media posts show?

The document has been public for years. It is included among the FBI’s "John F. Kennedy Jr. Part 01" vault records. The Associated Press first gained access to the document by filing a Freedom of Information Act request in 2000.

The document featured in the posts begins on page 154 and discussed four fingerprints collected from two pieces of evidence or "specimens": an envelope postmarked from Massachusetts and addressed to Biden and a handwritten letter that began, "Dear Sen. Biden: You are a traitor," and was signed, "John. F. Kennedy Jr."

The social media posts included a portion of page 155.

The FBI records referred to Biden as the victim and refer to the suspect using law enforcement shorthand for "unknown subject," writing, "unsub AKA John F. Kennedy Jr." On pages 156, 160 and 162 the document described the letter as an "anonymous letter file" — signaling that the writer was unknown, though Kennedy’s name was used to sign it.

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stated on February 19, 2025 in an Instagram post

“Delta plane that crashed in Toronto operated by Endeavor Air with all-female flight crew.”

The Associated Press in 2000 reported that the authorities closed their investigation into the letter at the end of 1994. The records said the letter’s handwriting was analyzed and four latent fingerprints were developed by the lab, but noted "there are no suspects at this time wherein latent comparisons can be made."

In 2020, Steven M. Gillon, a University of Oklahoma history professor who also wrote a biography about Kennedy, told PolitiFact that the FBI didn’t pursue the letter "because they did not believe that John wrote it."

"The FBI dismissed it as a hoax," Gillon said at the time.

PolitiFact and other news organizations reported that there’s little evidence Kennedy signed the letter.

The FBI did not respond to our request for comment.

Kennedy died in 1999 when the small plane he was piloting crashed off the coast of Massachusetts.

We rate claims that records reveal that Kenendy wrote a 1994 letter calling Biden "a traitor" False.