Rep. Anna Paulina Luna Gives CIA 24 Hours to Return JFK and MKUltra Documents or Face Subpoena

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is not playing around with the CIA.

The Florida congresswoman gave the agency a 24-hour ultimatum on Tuesday: return documents related to the JFK assassination and the MKUltra program to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s office, or she will move to issue a subpoena.

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. These documents have been requested by Congress. @DNIGabbard @CIADirector https://t.co/Y5lMw8AYK5

— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) May 13, 2026

The first wave of the story carried claims that the CIA had “raided” Gabbard’s office that same day. That is not what happened. Luna herself issued a clarification, stating the documents were taken at an earlier date and that the incident was not a raid. She said it was only on Tuesday that she and other lawmakers were made aware of the situation through reporting.

Clarification: Took documents that ODNI has jurisdiction over. Also, this did not happen today and was not a “raid” however it did take place and we are just being made aware of it based on reporting etc.

— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) May 14, 2026

Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich added further detail after speaking with an intelligence official, reporting that CIA personnel took documents related to JFK and MKUltra from the National Reconnaissance Office during a government shutdown last year and had not returned them to ODNI.

UPDATE on this and more on @KatiePavlichNN at 10 pm et on NewsNation. I just spoke to an Intelligence official who told me the following:

-The documents were not taken today and it was not a raid on DNI Gabbard's office

-People from the CIA took documents (related to the JFK… https://t.co/PF4jcBx6fc pic.twitter.com/wEIouQosIm

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) May 14, 2026

That timeline is important. The Tuesday news was the congressional discovery and warning shot. The underlying allegation is serious: classified files that ODNI had authority over, files that President Donald Trump ordered declassified, were reportedly removed by CIA personnel and have not been given back.

The Daily Caller was among the first outlets to piece together the full picture:

Two intelligence community officials said CIA officials took documents from the JFK assassination and MKUltra files while those records were being reviewed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard for declassification. That is the core document allegation behind Luna’s 24-hour demand. The files were not described as ordinary agency paperwork, but as records tied to two of the most sensitive transparency fights in modern American history, and records Congress says it has requested for its own oversight work.

The account also connected those records to CIA officer James Erdman III’s testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Erdman said the agency took back roughly 40 boxes of JFK and MKUltra material and separately alleged that CIA officials monitored the computer and phone usage of investigators tied to Gabbard’s work on COVID origins questions. The CIA side was included too: spokeswoman Liz Lyons accused the committee of bad faith and political theater. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou cut through the agency-power question, saying the CIA could not overrule the president or the DNI.

The congressional escalation went beyond Luna’s social media ultimatum. The Washington Examiner reported that the pressure campaign has formal backing from House leadership.

Luna’s ultimatum was paired with a more formal preservation push. Luna and House Oversight Chairman James Comer sent CIA Director John Ratcliffe a request to preserve documents related to both the JFK assassination and MKUltra. That matters because Congress is not treating the missing records as a random filing problem. The preservation demand frames the fight as an oversight issue involving records that lawmakers had already requested and that ODNI was reviewing for declassification.

The report also sharpened the Gabbard connection. Gabbard’s office oversees the intelligence community, and the documents at issue were tied to a declassification effort that followed President Trump’s promise to release remaining JFK-related files. Luna later corrected the most overheated version of the story, saying the raid did not happen on Wednesday and that the key point was ODNI jurisdiction. The MKUltra backdrop explains why Congress is pressing so hard: the program involved CIA mind-control and interrogation experiments, including drug use and psychological manipulation, and many Americans still see the surviving records as a test of whether the government will finally tell the truth.

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The CIA, for its part, is pushing back. Agency spokeswoman Liz Lyons disputed the framing of the Senate hearing where Erdman testified, accusing the committee of “bad faith” and calling the proceedings “political theater.” Lyons noted that Erdman appeared under subpoena, suggesting the testimony was not voluntarily offered.

That response deserves acknowledgment. The central question remains: where are the documents, and why haven’t they been returned?

Just The News provided additional background on the whistleblower at the center of the storm:

James Erdman III was identified as a senior CIA operations officer who had recently completed a joint-duty assignment with the ODNI Director Initiatives Group, a unit established under Gabbard. That background is important because Erdman was not presented as an outside commentator. He was describing the dispute from inside the intelligence world and tying the document fight to broader claims about CIA resistance to oversight.

Erdman’s testimony alleged that CIA management overruled analysts and retaliated against people who cooperated with a rewrite of the agency’s COVID origins assessment. In that same testimony, he said the CIA seized 40 boxes of files undergoing ODNI declassification review related to the Kennedy assassination and MKUltra when the initiatives group ceased its work. Luna had already postponed a separate MKUltra hearing because of witness concerns, then warned the agency that congressional action would follow if the documents were not returned.

The surveillance allegations also go further.

Reason reported on the broader scope of Erdman’s testimony:

Erdman told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the CIA frustrated COVID origins work by withholding records, retaliating against cooperating personnel, and monitoring investigators’ computer and phone usage as well as their whistleblower contacts. His claim was not limited to one box of documents or one internal disagreement. He described a broader pattern in which people acting under presidential and DNI direction were allegedly watched and slowed down by the agency they were investigating.

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The testimony also said ODNI under Gabbard had been working to declassify roughly 2,000 COVID origins documents, while both CIA and the State Department slowed the effort by refusing to hand over requested files. That context does not prove every allegation, but it shows why the JFK and MKUltra boxes have become part of a much larger fight. If ODNI is the office tasked with declassification and oversight, then an agency withholding or removing records from that process is exactly the sort of thing Congress is supposed to confront.

The legal authority here is not ambiguous. President Trump signed Executive Order 14176 on January 23, 2025, declaring that continued withholding of JFK assassination records is “not consistent with the public interest.” The order directed the DNI and the Attorney General to present a plan for the full and complete release of remaining JFK records, along with disclosure plans for records related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The National Archives confirmed that its 2025 JFK release work followed the president’s directive and that agencies worked to comply with the executive order.

So the president ordered declassification. The DNI was carrying it out. And the CIA allegedly walked off with the files.

Whether you call it a raid, a seizure, or a bureaucratic power grab, the result is the same: documents the American public was promised are not where they are supposed to be. Luna’s subpoena threat puts a clock on the CIA’s response. If those 40 boxes do not come back, expect this fight to get a lot louder.