A CIA whistleblower accused the Central Intelligence Agency of reclaiming sensitive files related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the MKUltra program that were being reviewed for declassification by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s team.
The allegations were made Wednesday during a Senate hearing focused on the origins of COVID-19 by CIA special operations officer James Erdman III.
Erdman testified that the CIA reclaimed approximately 40 boxes of JFK assassination records and MKUltra files after Gabbard’s Director’s Initiatives Group, known as DIG, ceased operations 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 told lawmakers during the hearing.
Gabbard created the Director’s Initiatives Group last year as part of a broader effort examining alleged weaponization inside the intelligence community and increasing transparency involving classified government records.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence shut down the DIG program in February after roughly 10 months of operation, according to reports discussing the dispute.
Erdman also accused the CIA of improperly monitoring communications and activity involving DIG personnel and whistleblowers connected to investigations conducted by the group.
“The CIA illegally monitored the computer and phone usage of DIG personnel, their investigations, and contact with whistleblowers,” Erdman testified during the hearing.
The CIA strongly rejected the allegations afterward and criticized the Senate hearing as “dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing.”
The allegations prompted immediate reactions from lawmakers, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who threatened subpoena action if the documents were not returned.
“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 wrote on X following the hearing.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) publicly backed Luna’s call for congressional action, while Rep. Jared Moskowitz also expressed interest in the matter, per the New York Post.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year directing the declassification of remaining records tied to Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Since the order was issued, the federal government has released more than 80,000 pages of JFK-related records, though historians and researchers said little major new information has emerged.
Project MKUltra was a covert CIA program conducted between 1953 and 1973 involving experiments on human behavior, drugs and psychological manipulation before it was publicly exposed during Senate investigations in 1975.
