President Donald Trump on Friday said he was ordering the declassification and release of any records in government hands related to Amelia Earhart, the pioneering female pilot who vanished while attempting to circumnavigate the globe nearly a century ago.
The president made the bizarre announcement on Truth Social on Friday evening just after returning to the White House from a day trip to watch the Ryder Cup golf competition on Long Island.
He claimed he’d been asked by “many people” who’d inquired “about the life and times of Amelia Earhart” and whether he’d “consider declassifying and releasing everything about her, in particular, her last, fatal flight.”
Trump also added that Earhart’s disappearance in July 1937 after departing an airfield in Papua New Guinea for an expected 20-hour flight to Howland Island (located roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia) had “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,” he said.
A report on Earhart’s disappearance commissioned and investigated by the U.S. government concluded that she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, had run out of fuel during the flight, leading their Lockheed Electra aircraft to crash into the ocean.
Her stepson, George Palmer Putnam Jr, told the Palm Beach Post in a 2011 interview that he believes "the plane just ran out of gas.”
Other theories about her fate hold that she and Noonan may have been captured by Japanese troops or crash-landed on a different island, but her plane and remains have never been found.
It’s unclear what records the government could have about Earhart after nearly 100 years — or why any such records would still be classified.
But the president’s bizarre announcement comes just as a bipartisan group of House members are set to be able to force a vote on legislation ordering the Department of Justice to release case files associated with deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
One Democratic congressman co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation to force the Epstein Files vote told The Independent that they plan to hold the vote as soon as the newest member of Congress takes her seat — as early as Monday.
On Tuesday, Arizona’s 7th district held a special election, which Adelita Grijalva won to replace her father, the late Raúl Grijalva. Grijalva said that she plans to immediately sign a discharge petition to force the vote.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) filed a discharge petition in July to force the release of files related to Epstein. If a discharge petition receives the signature of a majority of members, they can force a vote without the consent of leadership.
Khanna told The Independent by text message on Friday that they expect to bring the discharge petition to the floor “As soon as shes sworn in!”
Eric Garcia contributed reporting
