Gabbard spokesperson pushes back on reported federal raid on office
by Ashleigh Fields - 05/14/26 10:01 AM ET
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is pushing back on reporting of a CIA raid on the office.
“This is false,” Olivia Coleman, a spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, wrote on the social platform X. She was referencing a now-deleted post from Fox News host Jesse Watters about the alleged raid. “The CIA did not raid the DNI’s office.”
Watters was citing comments from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who alleged files related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy and the CIA’s Project MK-ULTRA were taken from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in Virginia.
The NRO periodically reviews collections of records associated with a single historically significant NRO program or project for declassification and public release, according to its website.
“The reason why this is troubling … there was an executive order that the president directed the full declassification of JFK, but then also to the MK-ULTRA files. Famously the CIA said that all documents were released and other documents had been destroyed,” Luna said during an appearance on NewsNation’s “Katie Pavlich Tonight.”
“So, these are allegedly those documents that apparently never existed,” she added.
The Florida Republican noted that she personally called CIA Director John Ratcliffe to discuss the alleged FBI raid. In a follow up post after the interview, Luna said this is “not an issue” with Ratcliffe or Gabbard.
“I am noticing a few large accounts stating falsely that I claimed there was a raid on Tulsi Gabbard’s office by the CIA. This is completely false …” Luna wrote in the post on X, adding, “There is no clip or statement that exists. Why is there an orchestrated push for this narrative”
“When Congress is notified of conflicting narratives from different agencies, i.e., the CIA and ODNI, it is our job to follow through to ensure documents are preserved and not destroyed,” the Republican continued. “This is not an issue with Ratcliffe or Gabbard.”
She added, “For people to act like the CIA doesn’t have a history of destroying documents is BIZARO-WORLD. Watch the clip for yourself. I am talking about what the whistleblower is saying under oath.”
The Hill has reached out to Luna‘s office for comment.
The lawmaker, who chairs the House Oversight Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, said late last month that the task force would hold a hearing on MK-ULTRA files.
MK-ULTRA was a program headed by the CIA that began in 1953 with intentions to study behavioral modification, according to University of Louisville records.
It’s been the subject of conspiracy theories and became a renewed topic in the news after the Daily Mail published an article noting that a new report on the intelligence service studying mind control was added to the CIA reading room last year.
Updated at 11:37 a.m. EDT.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5877734-tulsi-gabbard-odni-office-fbi-raid-reporting/