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CIA Took 40 Boxes of JFK and MKUltra Files From Gabbard’s Team — and Never Gave Them Back

An ongoing story as there has been no CIA or ODNI full statements yet.

CIA Took 40 Boxes of JFK and MKUltra Files From Gabbard’s Team — and Never Gave Them Back

The Central Intelligence Agency secretly removed approximately 40 boxes of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the agency’s MKUltra mind control program from a warehouse controlled by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — during the government shutdown last year, in the middle of the night — and has refused to return them.

That’s the allegation that exploded across Washington Wednesday, touching off a confrontation between Congress, the CIA, and the DNI’s office that is still unfolding.

The incident did not occur Wednesday and was not a raid on Gabbard’s office, as initial social media reports suggested. According to NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich, CIA personnel took documents related to the JFK assassination and MKUltra from the National Reconnaissance Office during last year’s government shutdown and have not returned them or provided them to ODNI. The Daily Beast

The story surfaced publicly when CIA whistleblower James Erdman testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, saying the agency “took back 40 boxes of JFK and MKUltra files” that Gabbard’s team was reviewing for declassification. Erdman also alleged that the CIA “illegally monitored the computer and phone usage” of Gabbard’s investigators during their probe into the COVID-19 origins cover-up — “Americans being spied on illegally while carrying out duties directed by the President and under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence.” The National Desk

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who chairs a special House Oversight task force on government declassification, went public Wednesday night saying she had just been notified of the document removal. “These are allegedly those documents that apparently never existed,” she said of the MKUltra files — a reference to the CIA’s longstanding claim that most MKUltra records were destroyed in 1973. “Very troubling.” She and House Oversight Chairman James Comer immediately sent a document preservation letter to CIA Director John Ratcliffe. TMZ

Gabbard’s own press secretary, Olivia Coleman, pushed back on the “raid” framing: “This is false — the CIA did not raid the DNI’s office.” Luna subsequently clarified that the CIA “took documents that ODNI has jurisdiction over” and that the incident had not happened that day. The CIA has not commented publicly on the allegations. Washington Times

The nuance McCabe correctly flagged on Real America’s Voice cuts to the heart of the story: whether it was a “raid” or not, the CIA operates under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence. Two intelligence community officials confirmed to The Daily Caller that CIA personnel did remove files tied to JFK and MKUltra that were under review for public release. The agency removing those documents from its own supervisor’s custody — without authorization, in the middle of the night, during a shutdown — and then withholding them is the story regardless of what you call it. 13WHAM

The episode arrives as Trump had ordered full declassification of the JFK files and as Gabbard has been aggressively pursuing other declassification efforts, including the recent release of documents exposing the 2019 Trump impeachment origins.

Sources: Newsweek | Daily Caller | RedState | Yahoo News / Mediaite | Just the News | Live Now Fox