Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sharply criticized the CIA this week after reports alleged that the agency had removed boxes of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy from the office of outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Kennedy, whose uncle was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, described the reported handling of the files as potentially “sinister” and said it was difficult to explain the episode as anything other than unlawful.
“This is yet another inexplicable move by the CIA that it’s hard to put a face on it that’s not sinister because it’s illegal,” RFK told The New York Post.
The nephew of President John Kennedy and son of Robert Kennedy has long been a critic of the CIA.
RFK Jr. talks about JFK and the CIA. pic.twitter.com/QNHMWDsWCj
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) March 7, 2025
Kennedy made the remarks while in Iowa promoting his Make America Healthy Again legislative agenda. His comments came amid a widening dispute over a whistleblower claim that the CIA had removed roughly 40 boxes of records that were being prepared for declassification. The materials reportedly included documents related to the JFK assassination and the CIA’s MK-Ultra program, a Cold War-era operation involving mind control and behavioral experiments from the 1950s through the 1970s.
Kennedy pointed to the federal law governing the release of assassination records, saying the government had long been under a legal obligation to make the remaining files public.
“I mean, the JFK assassination document act said they had to release all of that stuff.”
He was referring to the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which was enacted after decades of public suspicion and required the government to collect, review, and release assassination-related records. President Donald Trump also issued an executive order after returning to office directing federal agencies to end further delays in the release of remaining assassination files.
Asked why the CIA would continue to resist full disclosure more than six decades after Kennedy’s death, Kennedy said he could not identify a legitimate explanation.
“I don’t know. I mean, obviously, there’s something that they feel like that they don’t want the public to read,” he said. “It’s very strange.”
Kennedy also voiced support for congressional efforts to press the agency for greater transparency. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have sought additional records and demanded answers from the CIA over the disputed files.
“I’m grateful to them for doing that,” he said. “I don’t even know if you need Congress, but I’m glad that Congress responded.”
Luna visited CIA headquarters at Langley last week after warning that the agency could face a subpoena if it did not return the records. She and Comer also sent a preservation letter to CIA Director John Ratcliffe seeking to protect assassination-related and MK-Ultra materials from destruction or removal.
The CIA has forcefully denied wrongdoing. A spokesperson told The Post that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had already acknowledged errors in describing the status of the documents.
“ODNI has acknowledged in writing they made a mistake saying that boxes were seized and then were again mistaken in saying there were ever any boxes either missing or not made available. ODNI has acknowledged all boxes have been made available to them for more than a year,” the CIA said.
The White House backed that account, saying the relevant documents had been provided or made available for review and that no records had been taken from the DNI’s offices.
The dispute has drawn attention from several lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who said any removal of documents from Gabbard’s custody during declassification efforts would raise serious concerns.
Kennedy’s comments also revived attention on his earlier statements about the assassination. In 2024, he said on a podcast that the CIA “was directly involved in my uncle’s assassination, and in the 60-year cover-up” in connection with MK-Ultra. His office did not clarify whether his latest remarks were meant to refer specifically to that program.
[Read More: Democrats Block Woman’s Museum For Weird Reason]
