WASHINGTON — The officials arrived at the secret CIA archival facility in the Washington area one morning in early April.

Their mission: to seize still-classified CIA files on the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

The team pulled up in their vehicles unannounced, catching the spy agency off-guard, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. They were acting on behalf of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who wanted to take documents out of the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency and start the process of declassifying them at the National Archives, the people said.

One of the people familiar with the matter said the CIA wasn’t aware that it was about to receive direction that day “from a higher government agency.” T

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