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A stunning allegation inside a Senate hearing has ignited a political and intelligence community clash, after a CIA whistleblower claimed that highly sensitive government files tied to JFK’s assassination and the MKUltra program were taken from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence just as they were set for declassification.

The accusation has triggered urgent demands from lawmakers, a preservation notice to the CIA, and threats of congressional subpoenas, turning a routine oversight hearing into a full blown confrontation over secrecy, accountability, and control of historic records.

Whistleblower Drops Explosive Claim In Senate Hearing

CIA whistleblower James Erdman III, a senior operations officer, delivered the allegation during Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

He claimed that CIA officials intervened to seize documents connected to the agency’s controversial MKUltra human experimentation program as well as assassination related files concerning John F. Kennedy Jr from the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Erdman said the materials were already in the pipeline for declassification, a process long demanded by the public and transparency advocates, when the CIA allegedly stepped in and removed them.

The claim immediately intensified scrutiny on the agency and raised questions about whether classified historical records are being withheld from mandated disclosure efforts.

GROWING POLITICAL BACKLASH AND CONGRESSIONAL WARNING

The allegation quickly escalated beyond the hearing room, drawing a sharp response from US House Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who accused the CIA of violating a presidential executive order.

She gave the agency headed by John Ratcliffe a 24 hour deadline to return the documents to Tulsi Gabbard’s office, warning that failure to comply would trigger a subpoena motion.

"These documents have been requested by Congress," she wrote in the post.

Luna also amplified the dispute publicly, framing it as a direct challenge to congressional authority and oversight powers tied to national security transparency.

SENATE COMMITTEE MOVES TO PRESERVE RECORDS

The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a formal preservation notice directed at the CIA Director, demanding that the files be returned to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

A letter to that effect was sent to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna shared a copy of the correspondence on X.

In her statement, she emphasized the urgency surrounding the documents and tied them to broader declassification efforts involving major historical figures and investigations.

"Given the nature of docs in question, we are sending a preservation notice. Docs need to be returned to ODNI given that ODNI was given direction and authority by the President to declass RFK, MLK, & JFK. Regarding MKULTRA, these were documents specifically requested by my Task Force and currently being used for our investigation."

MKUltra AND JFK FILES AT THE CENTER OF NEW SCRUTINY

The controversy places renewed attention on MKUltra, the CIA’s covert Cold War era program from the 1950s and 1960s that carried out illegal human experimentation and behavior modification studies, including the use of LSD on unwitting subjects.

It also revives long standing public interest in the assassination related files surrounding President John F. Kennedy, which remain among the most closely examined classified records in US history.

A set of MKUltra related documents was previously released in 2018, but lawmakers and investigators have continued to push for broader transparency across intelligence archives.

The declassification of JFK and MLK files was among sweeping actions taken by former President Donald Trump after taking office in January 2023, although no specific directives were issued regarding MKUltra materials in that same framework.

As pressure builds, the dispute now centers on a deeper question gripping Washington: who controls access to America’s most sensitive historical secrets, and why are some documents still being pulled back just as they are set to come into public view?