Washington D.C. has been rattled by a series of allegations regarding an alleged confrontation between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Tulsi Gabbard. At the heart of the dispute is a claim that CIA officials physically removed classified documents, including historically sensitive materials related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Project MKUltra, from Director Gabbard's workspace.
"Donald Trump’s CIA, raided or invaded or whatever, unauthorized entry, I don’t know, play the euphemisms games all you want." — Dan Bongino, Conservative Media Commentator
The claims were brought to public attention by Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican who chairs the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. Congresswoman Luna alleged that the CIA "raided" Director Gabbard’s office and confiscated materials actively being prepared for public release. These materials, according to Luna, specifically included records connected to the JFK assassination and documents pertaining to Project MKUltra, the CIA's controversial Cold War program involving covert psychological and chemical experimentation.
Congresswoman Luna did not make these allegations in a casual manner. She embedded them within a formal preservation letter, which was appended to testimony delivered before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. This official channel lent significant weight to her claims, making them difficult for Washington insiders and transparency advocates to overlook. According to Luna, the source of this information was a CIA employee who directly testified that agency personnel retrieved approximately 40 boxes of records. These boxes were explicitly identified as "JFK files and MKUltra files being processed for declassification." The alleged unauthorized removal of 40 boxes of highly sensitive documents from the office of the nation's top intelligence overseer quickly ignited a firestorm across conservative media outlets within hours of the claims surfacing.
In response to the escalating controversy, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence moved swiftly to address the allegations. A spokesperson for the ODNI issued a statement flatly rejecting the characterization that any "raid" had occurred at Director Gabbard's office. This denial, however, did little to quell the intense scrutiny and commentary that followed.
Conservative media figure and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino notably weighed in on the unfolding situation during his program on Thursday. Bongino characterized the alleged incident as a "disgrace" and criticized what he described as a coordinated effort to destabilize President Trump's administration from within its own ranks. He dismissed semantic debates over the precise terminology for the alleged incident, stating, "Donald Trump’s CIA, raided or invaded or whatever, unauthorized entry, I don’t know, play the euphemisms games all you want." Bongino reserved his strongest criticism for media narratives suggesting that U.S. intelligence agencies were operating beyond the control of President Trump, labeling such claims as "total bullsh*t." He urged listeners to "Listen to me. I said, please. I’m trying to help."
Bongino further escalated his commentary by accusing unnamed individuals within the White House of actively running a political operation against the very movement that brought President Trump to power. He claimed, "Because as I’ve said to you, there are people out there already running a political operation from inside the White House against the MAGA movement." He also highlighted the timing of the story's emergence, noting that President Trump was abroad, engaged in high-stakes foreign policy negotiations with China when the controversy broke. Bongino asserted, "The president’s overseas right now dealing with the most existential crisis of our time," referencing the standoff with the Chinese Communist Party. He dismissed the leaked controversy as "kiddie bullshit," suggesting it was engineered as a distraction during a critical diplomatic period for the administration.
The documents at the center of this dispute are historically charged. The assassination files of President John F. Kennedy have been a focal point of public demand for government transparency for decades, with President Trump having previously expressed a commitment to aggressive declassification of these records. Similarly, Project MKUltra, exposed through congressional investigations in the 1970s, continues to be a significant source of public distrust toward the intelligence community due to its unethical human experimentation. The combination of these two subjects represents some of the most politically explosive classified material held by the U.S. government.
As the public dispute between Congresswoman Luna's office and the ODNI continues to unfold, no definitive documentary evidence has yet emerged to either fully confirm or fully refute the allegation that 40 boxes of classified documents were removed from Director Gabbard's office without proper authorization. The incident underscores ongoing tensions surrounding government secrecy, intelligence oversight, and calls for greater transparency.
