Allegations that the CIA removed boxes of documents tied to the John F. Kennedy assassination and the controversial MKUltra program from the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard have triggered renewed scrutiny over the President Donald Trump administration’s declassification efforts and the handling of historic intelligence records.
According to a Fox News host, Jesse Watters, CIA personnel on Wednesday, May 13, “raided” Gabbard’s office and seized files related to the JFK assassination and MKUltra, a Cold War-era CIA program associated with covert mind-control experiments.
“The CIA just raided Tulsi Gabbard’s office,” Watters said during the broadcast. “Agents hauled out dozens of boxes. Files on the JFK assassination and MKUltra, the CIA mind control operation, which she was in the process of declassifying.”
Watters cited testimony from an unnamed whistleblower and comments from Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who had earlier claimed publicly that her office had been informed about the alleged document removal.
Congresswoman speaks after CIA reportedly raids office of DNI Tulsi Gabbard
Luna said the boxes reportedly contained material linked to both the JFK files and MKUltra records.
“We were actually just notified that the CIA went in and took documents out of ODNI,” Luna said. “Multiple boxes pertaining to the JFK files as well as MKUltra.”
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She added that the matter was especially concerning because President Trump had previously signed executive orders directing the declassification of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
“The CIA famously has said that all documents were released and other documents had been destroyed,” Luna said. “So these are allegedly those documents that apparently never existed.”
The Florida congresswoman said she had contacted House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and that lawmakers were preparing a formal preservation request to the CIA to prevent the destruction or alteration of any records related to the matter.
She also said calls had been placed to the White House and CIA Director John Ratcliffe seeking clarification.
However, the Press Secretary for the Director of National Intelligence, Olivia Coleman, denied the allegations on Wednesday evening, maintaining that the ODNI offices had not been raided.
“This is false – the CIA did not raid the DNI’s office,” she said on X.
The claims had emerged amid the administration’s broader declassification campaign involving historic political assassinations and intelligence operations.
Last year, Gabbard announced the release of more than 230,000 pages of files tied to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The release by the DNI was carried out in coordination with the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and the National Archives under President Trump’s Executive Order 14176.
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According to the ODNI, many of the MLK-related documents had never previously been digitized. They included FBI investigative records, internal agency memoranda, and foreign intelligence material connected to the international search for James Earl Ray following King’s assassination.
“The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination,” Gabbard said at the time of the release.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are ensuring that no stone is left unturned in our mission to deliver complete transparency on this pivotal and tragic event in our nation’s history. I extend my deepest appreciation to the King family for their support.”
The administration has repeatedly framed the declassification effort as part of a broader transparency initiative involving historically sensitive federal records.
Why it matters
President Trump has long pledged fuller disclosure of JFK assassination materials, though successive administrations — including his own first term — delayed or partially withheld some records on national security grounds.
MKUltra, meanwhile, remains one of the CIA’s most controversial historical programs. Conducted during the Cold War, the project involved experiments related to psychological conditioning, interrogation techniques, questions,ques and the use of drugs including LSD.
Many MKUltra records were destroyed in the 1970s, though congressional investigations later uncovered surviving documentation and testimony detailing aspects of the program.
The latest allegations are likely to intensify scrutiny of whether additional unreleased intelligence records still exist in government archives, despite decades of official disclosures and prior claims that key materials had already been destroyed or fully released.
No evidence has yet been publicly presented to confirm the contents of the reportedly seized boxes or to verify the circumstances surrounding their alleged removal from ODNI offices.
