Tulsi Gabbard is at the center of explosive claims by a whistleblower accusing the CIA of removing files related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the MKUltra mind-control program from her office.

CIA special operations officer James Erdman III, a 20-year veteran of the agency, outlined the accusations during a Wednesday Senate hearing about the origins of Covid-19. 

'When the DIG [Director’s Initiatives Group] ceased operations, the CIA also took back 40 boxes of JFK files and MKUltra files being processed for declassification by DNI Gabbard,' Erdman claimed. 

Republican lawmakers seized on Erdman's shocking accusations, with Anna Paulina Luna declaring: '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.'

Luna later clarified that the CIA did not 'raid' Gabbard's office, but did take documents 'ODNI has jurisdiction over.' 

The CIA and DNI have both denied Erdman's testimony, attacking the committee hearing as 'dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing.'

The Daily Mail has asked the DNI whether it ever shared any JFK or MKUltra documents with the CIA while Gabbard was allegedly seeking to declassify them.

MKUltra, the CIA's covert Cold War-era program, subjected unwitting Americans to drugs, hypnosis, and psychological torture in an effort to develop mind-control techniques. Most of the program's original records were destroyed in 1973 on the orders of then-CIA Director Richard Helms.