Explosive allegations against the Central Intelligence Agency surfaced Wednesday after a whistleblower claimed the agency removed sensitive files tied to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the infamous MKUltra program while they were being reviewed for declassification by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s team.
The accusations were made during a Senate hearing focused on the origins of COVID-19 by special operations officer James Erdman III, who alleged the CIA reclaimed dozens of boxes of highly sensitive records after Gabbard’s Director’s Initiatives Group, known as DIG, was dissolved earlier this year.
“When the DIG ceased operations, the CIA also took back 40 boxes of JFK files and MKUltra files being processed for declassification by DNI Gabbard,” Erdman testified before lawmakers.
Gabbard created the DIG unit last year to investigate alleged weaponization inside the intelligence community and push for greater government transparency. The initiative operated for roughly 10 months before being shut down in February.
Erdman also accused the CIA of illegally monitoring DIG personnel, including tracking computer activity, phone usage, investigations, and communications with whistleblowers connected to the program.
The CIA strongly denied the allegations and blasted the Senate hearing itself, calling it “dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing.”
The claims immediately triggered outrage among several lawmakers. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna responded by publicly threatening subpoena action if the documents were not returned to Gabbard’s office within 24 hours.
“The CIA has 24 hours to return the documents to Tulsi Gabbard’s office or else I will make a motion to issue a subpoena,” Luna posted online. “These documents have been requested by Congress.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert quickly backed Luna’s demands, while even Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz reportedly expressed concern about the situation.
Luna later clarified that the CIA did not physically “raid” Gabbard’s office but instead reclaimed documents that technically fall under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The controversy arrives amid renewed public interest surrounding the JFK assassination and Project MKUltra after President Trump signed an executive order directing the declassification of all remaining assassination records shortly after returning to office. More than 80,000 pages have already been released, though many researchers argue the disclosures revealed little significant new information.
Project Project MKUltra remains one of the most controversial intelligence operations in American history. Running from 1953 through 1973, the program involved CIA experiments focused on mind control, psychological manipulation, and behavior modification techniques using drugs and other methods on human subjects.
The program was publicly exposed during the Senate Church Committee investigations in the 1970s, though much of the evidence had already been destroyed by the CIA before investigators could fully examine the scope of the operation.
Luna had planned to hold a congressional hearing specifically focused on MKUltra this week before announcing the hearing would be postponed. She and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer have also previously demanded that CIA Director John Ratcliffe preserve all remaining records tied to both MKUltra and the Kennedy assassination.
The post CIA Accused Of Taking JFK And MKUltra Files From Tulsi Gabbard’s Team appeared first on Real News Now.
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