Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he’s being investigated by federal authorities for collecting a whale specimen.

“I received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Institute saying that they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago,” RFK Jr. said during an event in Glendale, Arizona.

“This is all about the weaponization of our government against political opponents,” he said, according to The Guardian. 

RFK Jr says he faces federal investigation for beheading whale https://t.co/8cROo7h5Gi pic.twitter.com/RptPUlUY0m

— Guardian World (@guardianworld) September 15, 2024

From The Guardian:

Kennedy, who endorsed the former president after dropping out of November’s election, fell under scrutiny in recent weeks after the resurfacing of a 2012 interview that his daughter Kick gave to Town & Country in which she addressed the whale in question.

Recounting how the creature washed up on a beach near Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, she said: “[He] ran down to the beach with a chainsaw, cut off the whale’s head and then bungee-corded it to the roof of the family minivan for the five-hour haul back to Mount Kisco, New York.

“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet. We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day to day stuff for us.”

Reports of the decapitation caught the attention of the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, which called on federal authorities to investigate Kennedy. In a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the environmental group said Kennedy “violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and possibly the Endangered Species Act, by illegally cutting the head off of a dead whale in or around 1994 in Hyannis Point, Massachusetts, and bringing it to his New York house”.

“The left-wing Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund resurfaced the decades-old story just days after RFK endorsed Trump, and ‘argued the dead animal was protected by the Marine Mammal Protection and Endangered Species, making it illegal to possess any part of it,'” Holden Culotta wrote.

“They also argued that it was ‘likely a felony violation of the 1900 Lacey Act, ‘which prohibits the transportation of any wildlife, dead or alive, that was reduced to possession in violation of any state, federal or international regulation or law,'” he added.

NEW: RFK Jr. is now under investigation over 1994 story that he “decapitated a dead whale” and took its across state lines

Kennedy said last night: “This is all about the weaponization of our government against political opponents.”

“I received a letter from the National Marine… pic.twitter.com/FAqYyZt4rc

— Holden Culotta (@Holden_Culotta) September 15, 2024

Per NBC News:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s comments came during a campaign event alongside former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for Trump at Arizona Christian University. Kennedy endorsed Trump in August and has since been on the campaign trail urging supporters to back the former president.

Kennedy told NBC News after the program that he has never killed a whale.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, did not immediately respond to a request for comment and confirmation Saturday night.

When asked by a reporter after the campaign event for details about the investigation, Kennedy said he was “not going to talk” about the incident, but would talk about “serious policy issues.” He criticized the media as wanting to discuss “gossipy nonsense,” adding, “I’m not interested in feeding that feature of mainstream media.”

After the 2012 story resurfaced last month, an environmental group urged federal officials to investigate the incident.