US Representative Anna Paulina Luna claims that these documents were in the process of being prepared for declassification. Officials have charged intelligence agencies with obstructing transparency efforts aimed at releasing historical government records.
HOLY CRAP! The CIA just RAIDED Tulsi Gabbard’s office, and SEIZED documents related to the JFK assassination, MKUltra, and more, that Gabbard was set to declassify
BOXES of them
The CIA is in DIRECT VIOLATION of a Trump executive order
47 must REEL IN CIA! pic.twitter.com/cdEkMBUX5J
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 14, 2026
Luna stated that the CIA has a 24-hour deadline to return the documents to Gabbard’s office. She cautioned that if the files are not returned, she would seek a congressional subpoena.
She also asserted that Congress had formally requested these records as part of ongoing investigations and oversight work. Luna indicated that a preservation notice has been issued, instructing officials not to destroy or alter any related documents.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is urging you to preserve all existing and future records and materials. The Committee understands, based on testimony today before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, that ‘the CIA took back 40 boxes of JFK files and MKUltra files being processed for declassification by DNI Gabbard.”
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… pic.twitter.com/uBnt5RqjDD
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) May 13, 2026
“Moreover, House Rule XI clause 2(m)(1)(B) empowers Committees of the House of Representatives to demand, via subpoena or otherwise, the attendance and testimony of witnesses as well as the production of necessary documents,” the notice further stated.
Upon returning to office in 2023, US President Donald Trump enacted several executive measures pertaining to the release of long-hidden government records, including those relating to the JFK assassination and the murder of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
However, there was no distinct executive order specifically addressing MKUltra files.
Project MKUltra was indeed a covert CIA program during the 1950s and 1960s, involving experiments on mind control, psychological manipulation, and substances like LSD.
Some files related to MKUltra were later made public, including a series of documents declassified in 2018. Declassified records indicate that the CIA conducted drug tests on individuals, often without their knowledge or consent.
