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In early April, a covert team dispatched by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard unexpectedly arrived at a classified CIA archival facility in the Washington area.
They were under orders to seize still-classified documents surrounding the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Sources told Reuters the operation was carried out on behalf of Gabbard’s office, with officials instructed to transfer documents to the National Archives for declassification.
- Tulsi Gabbard sent a covert team to seize classified CIA files on JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations for declassification review.
- The team arrived unannounced at the CIA facility with legal authority to retrieve documents, surprising CIA personnel.
- Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, RFK Jr.'s daughter-in-law, accessed the warehouse despite lacking clearance, digitizing part of the archive.
Tulsi Gabbard sent a covert team to seize files from a CIA warehouse
Image credits: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The team arrived by vehicle without prior warning, catching CIA personnel off guard, and handed officials a document from Gabbard.
It stated that the team had the legal authority to seize the documents with or without CIA permission and that anyone opposing the action would be held accountable, a source told Reuters.
The person said the ODNI took action “because they [CIA officials] were not cooperating up until that point. So the director kind of put her foot down.”
According to other people familiar with the matter, the lead officer Paul Allen McDonald II, a temporary member of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), declared they were “on a mission” from Gabbard.
Image credits: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Tensions reportedly flared at the warehouse entrance as the ODNI team moved to take custody of the files, with shouting between the two agencies reported.
However, other sources described the CIA as being professional and cooperative.
One person told Reuters there appeared to be “a shared recognition that while the timeline was short, it had also been 60 years” since the Kennedy assassinations, marking enough time to declassify.
Also present at the warehouse was Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a Trump administration official and daughter-in-law of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, sources told Reuters.
Despite the fact that she lacked the necessary clearance badge, she was reportedly allowed inside the facility and spent about an hour working to digitize part of the archive.
Image credits: Win McNamee/Getty Images
The operation continued overnight and by 2 a.m. the next morning, a stockpile of documents had been loaded for transportation to the National Archives and Records Administration for potential public release.
The incident, first reported by Reuters on November 26, marked a rare confrontation between the CIA and Gabbard’s intelligence office.
It came after Trump signed an executive order in January commanding Gabbard and other intelligence agencies to review files connected to the assassinations and present a plan on how they could be declassified for public release.
By the time of the operation, there was frustration in Gabbard’s office as progress had been slow and Trump’s deadline for the records to be reviewed had come and gone.
Days later, Gabbard publicly referenced the mission during an April 10 Cabinet meeting at the White House.
Trump ordered the release of files relating to the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations
Image credits: Getty Images/Bettman
Speaking in front of reporters, she told Trump that she had sent “hunters” into CIA and FBI archives to search for remaining files related to the killings.
“We are actively going out and trying to search out the truth,” Gabbard said, according to Reuters. Both Trump and RFK Jr. praised the efforts at the time.
RFK Jr. has long said he believes the CIA was involved in his father’s and uncle’s assassinations, claims the CIA has repeatedly rejected.
However, new information from the tens of thousands of documents released revealed that the CIA had more knowledge of JFK shooter Lee Harvey Oswald than it publicly admitted.
Image credits: Photo by Warren K. Leffler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The knowledge related to agency surveillance of Oswald’s activities in Mexico City and his contacts with Soviet and Cuban officials.
None of the documents overturned the official finding that Oswald acted alone.
Likewise, the RFK releases contained no conclusive evidence contradicting the long-standing conclusion that Sirhan Sirhan was the sole gunman.
Following reports of the operation to retrieve the files, the White House has moved to dismiss claims of internal tensions between intelligence agencies.
Image credits: Getty Images/Bettman
Spokesman Steven Cheung told Reuters that Trump had confidence in Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“Efforts by the legacy media to sow internal division are a distraction that will not work,” Cheung said.
A spokesperson for the Director of National Intelligence told the outlet the ODNI “has worked in close coordination with the CIA since the beginning of the administration to carry out this historic release of files.”
A joint statement from the CIA and ODNI added that the agencies “have and will continue working hand-in-hand to release and declassify documents of public interest and execute President Trump’s mission of restoring trust in the intelligence community.”
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And yet more illegal covert crap from Piggy Trump. Who'da thunkit?
And yet more illegal covert crap from Piggy Trump. Who'da thunkit?
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