The federal agency is closing its investigation into RFK Jr. over the dead whale carcass, declaring the accusation unfounded

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN

(CNN) – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday that it has completed its investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr., finding that allegations that he decapitated a dead whale carcass two decades ago were baseless.

Last month, Kennedy said at a campaign rally in Arizona that he had received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Services, an organization that reports to NOAA, informing him that legal action was being taken against him for what he said was an incident 20 years ago, he was being investigated… I picked up a dead whale specimen and took it home.

“NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement determined the allegations were unfounded and has closed the investigation,” an agency spokesperson told CNN.

The spokesman did not provide any further information about the investigation.

Stefanie Spear, a spokeswoman for Kennedy, told CNN: “I hope this frees up NOAA’s enforcement resources so they can finally investigate the 109 deaths of Atlantic whales since 2022 near offshore wind projects.”

NOAA notes under the “Frequently Asked Questions” on its website that “there are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activity.”

The story about Kennedy and the whale carcass resurfaced shortly after he dropped his independent presidential campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

A 2012 interview with his daughter Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, published in Town & Country Magazine, was circulating on social media in which she recalled her father using a chainsaw to cut off a dead man’s head on the beach near their family home in Cape Cod Whale carcass had severed the whale’s head on the roof of the family’s minivan driving back to New York.

The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, an environmental group that supported Vice President Kamala Harris for president, had written a letter to NOAA calling for an investigation into whether Kennedy violated federal wildlife laws, arguing his actions could have endangered scientific research.

CNN’s Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.

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