A dispute involving the CIA, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and congressional lawmakers intensified Wednesday after reports surfaced claiming intelligence files connected to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the MKUltra program had been removed before they could be declassified, Breitbart reports.
The controversy erupted after Fox News host Jesse Watters said a whistleblower alleged that Gabbard’s office had effectively been “raided” while she was giving a deposition earlier in the day. Watters also claimed that Rep. Anna Paulina Luna had verified the account.
Gabbard’s office quickly pushed back on those reports.
“This is false,” said Olivia Coleman, a spokeswoman for Gabbard, responding to social media claims that the CIA “JUST RAIDED TULSI GABBARD’S OFFICE.”
“This is false – the CIA did not raid the DNI’s office,” Coleman wrote in a post.
Despite denying that any raid occurred, Luna later demanded that the documents be returned and warned of possible congressional action if they were not handed back promptly.
“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. “These documents have been requested by Congress.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert publicly backed Luna’s demand.
“Cosign!” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote in a post on X in response to Luna’s post. “I also want the names of who ordered this action and who signed off on this crap!!”
According to the Daily Caller, two intelligence officials confirmed that the CIA had taken possession of the files in question.
NewsNation correspondent Katie Pavlich later reported that the incident did not occur Wednesday and that it was not an actual raid on Gabbard’s office.
“an intelligence official” told her that the “documents were not taken today and it was not a raid on DNI Gabbard’s office.”
Pavlich added further details in a social media post, stating that the documents had allegedly been removed much earlier during the federal government shutdown.
“People from the CIA took documents (related to the JFK assassination/MKUltra) from the National Reconnaissance Office last year in the middle of the night during the government shutdown,” Pavlich continued, adding that the files had reportedly still not been returned.
Luna later issued her own clarification, acknowledging that the incident did not happen recently and should not be described as a raid, while maintaining that the documents were improperly removed.
“Clarification,” Luna wrote in another post on X. “Took documents that ODNI has jurisdiction over. Also, this did not happen today & was not a ‘raid’ however it did take place and we are just being made aware of it based on reporting etc.”
{Matzav.com}