Executive Summary
The Story So Far
Why This Matters
Who Thinks What?
The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, according to two law enforcement sources. This directive, issued nearly a month into a federal government shutdown, is the latest in a series of unusual demands for the agency to investigate decades-old mysteries.
Hoffa was last seen on July 30, 1975, outside a Michigan restaurant, and his presumed death has remained an unsolved case for decades. The FBI has conducted numerous searches for his remains over the years but has consistently come up empty-handed.
A powerful union leader with known ties to organized crime, Hoffa was imprisoned in 1967 for jury tampering and fraud. President Richard Nixon pardoned him in 1971 on the condition that he refrain from union activities until 1980, but Hoffa’s attempts to regain control of the union reportedly angered rivals.
The request for Hoffa documents comes amidst a period where FBI employees have been redirected from other assignments, including immigration enforcement and countering violent crime, to work on specific priority topics. These include redacting files associated with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Earlier this month, FBI employees received a similar directive to conduct priority searches for material related to the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart. That order, described as a “priority request from the Executive Office of the President of the United States,” instructed employees to search all areas where physical or digital records might be stored, regardless of case status.
Earhart vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world and was declared lost at sea after a 16-day search. President Donald Trump had previously announced his intention to “declassify and release all government records” related to her disappearance.
This pattern aligns with President Trump’s past actions, which include ordering the release of documents related to other high-profile deaths that have generated conspiracy theories. These include records concerning the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ongoing Investigations
The directives to search for records on Hoffa and Earhart underscore the administration’s focus on historical mysteries and declassification, even as the FBI faces other pressing national security and criminal justice priorities amid a government shutdown.
