A new investigative report alleges that the Central Intelligence Agency not only obstructed lawful oversight from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard but also spied on her internal watchdog team as it probed some of the most sensitive scandals in modern American history.
The revelations, drawn from sworn testimony by CIA whistleblower James Erdman III and highlighted by veteran reporter Catherine Herridge, land just as Gabbard steps down as Director of National Intelligence, a move she publicly attributed to her husbands rare form of bone cancer. According to The Gateway Pundit, the timing has raised serious questions in Washington, where tensions between the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) have been simmering for months. Those tensions burst into public view after Erdman testified that the CIA had seized JFK assassination and MKUltra records from ODNI custody, even as Gabbards office was processing them for declassification.
Earlier this month, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent a preservation letter to the CIA, demanding that all existing and future records related to the removed materials be safeguarded. A spokeswoman for the Director of National Intelligence later pushed back on reports of a raid, insisting no such operation had taken place as the story ricocheted through the media.
Erdman, however, never claimed that CIA officers stormed Gabbards office; instead, his sworn testimony painted a picture of systematic obstruction and quiet retrieval of sensitive files. In his May 13 opening statement before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the career CIA operations officer accused his own agency of a refusal to comply with lawful oversight and documented efforts to circumvent oversight.
He told lawmakers that the CIA stonewalled the ODNI Directors Initiatives Group (DIG) as it investigated the origins of COVID-19, anomalous health incidents, and unidentified anomalous phenomena, and then retaliated against analysts who refused to toe the preferred line. "The CIA illegally monitored the computer and phone usage of DIG personnel, their investigations, and contact with whistleblowers," which "significantly impacted Director Gabbard's implementation of several EOs issued during this administration and tasked to the DIG," he said.
Erdman further testified that when the DIGs ceased operations, the CIA also took back 40 boxes of JFK files and MKUltra files being processed for declassification by DNI Gabbard. Those records concern two of the most controversial chapters in U.S. intelligence history: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the CIAs MKUltra program, which experimented with drugs and psychological manipulation in pursuit of mind control.
Herridges report also underscores Erdmans claims about Directed Energy attacks that have caused so?called Anomalous Health Incidents, including Havana Syndrome, which the DIG team had been actively investigating. "The DIG investigated the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, the origins of COVID-19, Crossfire Hurricane, the Biden Administrations domestic surveillance, Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI), and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," Herridge reports.
According to the whistleblower, the CIAs alleged spying extended directly into that AHI probe, with agency monitoring described as tracking every keystroke on the devices of DIG personnel. At the same time, the CIA allegedly tried to choke off Gabbards oversight by denying her investigators access to both key officials and critical intelligence housed inside the agencys own walls.
Herridge reports that Erdman provided granular testimony about the DIGs work on Directed Energy attacks, also known as Havana Syndrome or Anomalous Health Incidents (AHIs). This was not the first time the CIA appears to have been monitoring DIG communications. Individuals involved in our AHI investigation discovered third parties were listening in on secure phone calls at Intelligence Community facilities. In one instance, it was during a conversation with a whistleblower.
These incidents were also reported in counterintelligence channels, and DNI IT experts confirmed that reproducing what occurred on the secure phone calls required an IT engineering work order. Someone had to request a technical change to the infrastructure. Herridge added that, During its investigation of AHIs, my reporting reveals additional allegations that the CIA denied DNI Gabbards investigators access to key analysts and officials still working in the CIA building, as well as relevant, highly classified intelligence held in compartmented programs.
Senator Rand Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee and has long warned about the dangers of an unaccountable intelligence bureaucracy, amplified Herridges reporting and Erdmans testimony. Condemning what he described as illegal spying and interference by the CIA, Paul declared, "We've got to get to the bottom of what they're hiding."
For conservatives already skeptical of the permanent security state, the allegations reinforce a troubling pattern: intelligence agencies operating as a fourth branch of government, insulated from democratic oversight and hostile to those who challenge their authority. With Gabbards resignation, 40 boxes of historically explosive files back under CIA control, and whistleblowers alleging internal surveillance of lawful oversight, the central question now is whether Congress will assert its constitutional role or allow the intelligence community to police itself yet again. This is a developing story.
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