According to US Representative Anna Paulina Luna, the documents were being prepared for declassification. The officials have accused intelligence agencies of blocking transparency efforts to release old 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 said the CIA has 24 hours to return these documents to Gabbard’s office. She warned that if the files are not returned, she will push for a congressional subpoena.
She also claimed that Congress had already officially requested these records as part of ongoing investigations and oversight work. According to Luna, a preservation notice has been sent ordering officials not to destroy or alter any documents connected to the matter.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is requesting you preserve all existing and future records and materials. The Committee understands, based on testimony today before the US Senate Commitee 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
“Additionally, House Rule XI clause 2(m)(1)(B) grants Committees of the House of Representatives the authority “to require, by subpoena or otherwise, the attendance and testimony of such witnesses and the production of such books, record, correspondence, memoranda, papers and documents as it considers necessary,” the notice added.
After returning to office in 2023, US President Donald Trump signed several executive actions related to the release of long-secret government records, including files connected to the JFK assassination and the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
However, there was no separate executive order specifically focused on MKUltra files.
Project MKUltra was a real secret CIA programme during the 1950s and 1960s. Under the programme, the CIA carried out experiments involving mind control, psychological manipulation, and drugs like LSD.
Some MKUltra-related files were later released publicly, including a batch of records declassified in 2018. According to declassified records, the CIA tested drugs such as LSD and other chemicals on people, often without their knowledge or consent.
