FBI employees ordered to immediately search for records related to Amelia Earhart, sources say

By Josh Campbell, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, and New York to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, two law enforcement sources told CNN.

Employees in the FBI’s DC and New York field offices received a highly unusual message from their leadership flagged with high importance late Tuesday telling them: “Per a priority request from the Executive Office of the President of the United States, please search any areas where papers or physical media records may be stored, to include both open or closed cases, for records responsive to Amelia Earhart.”

FBI employees were given a priority deadline of Wednesday to respond to the request, which comes on the seventh day of an ongoing federal government shutdown.

Earhart was attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world when her plane went missing over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. She was declared lost at sea following a 16-day search.

President Donald Trump last month said he was directing his administration to “declassify and release all government records” related to Earhart.

“Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions. I am ordering my Administration to declassify and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, and everything else about her,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Earhart, the first female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean, broke a number of aviation records, and she has been a source of public fascination during her life and after.

Conspiracy theories have developed since the aviator’s disappearance, but as CNN noted in 2024, the US government suspected that Earhart and her navigator crashed into the Pacific when the plane ran out of fuel.

Trump has previously ordered the release of documents related to other high-profile deaths that have sparked conspiracy theories, including records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This story and headline have been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.

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