An environmental group is calling on the federal government to investigate whether former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. broke laws when he transported a whale carcass across state lines – a story his daughter told him more than a decade ago.

The Center for Biological Diversity Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, sent a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s law enforcement office asking the federal agency to investigate whether Kennedy violated any laws.

“It is illegal under both the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act to possess any part of any animal, dead or alive, protected under either act,” the fund’s director, Brett Hartl, wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily Beast. “The continued possession of a whale skull constitutes a significant and ongoing violation of the law.”

The bizarre story made the rounds again over the weekend after Page Six spotted Kick hanging out with Ben Affleck – the same week his wife Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce.

The Kennedy offspring originally told the story in a glossy magazine. City and country profile in 2012, in which she tells the magazine how her father rushed to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, to bring the whale carcass to safety before hauling it to his home in Mount Kisco, New York.

“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would run against the windows, it was the most disgusting thing in the world,” Kick told the magazine. “We all had plastic bags over our heads with holes cut in them for our mouths, and people on the highway would give us the middle finger, but that was just normal everyday life for us.”

The fund cited the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibits the possession or killing of marine mammals such as dolphins and whales and prohibits the “transportation, sale, or offering for sale of such mammals or products made from such marine mammals.”

The landmark wildlife law, first signed in 1972, provides exemptions for scientists and researchers, but not for individual collectors. “Important research opportunities are lost when individuals consume a wildlife carcass and impede the work of scientists,” the fund’s letter said. “This is especially true for marine mammals, which are among the most difficult wildlife species in the world to study.”

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The group also invoked the Lacey Act of 1900, which prohibits interstate trade in illegally acquired animals or animal products.

“Normally, an unconfirmed anecdote would not be sufficient evidence to support an investigation. However, Mr. Kennedy has admitted to recklessly – and without regard to legal requirements – killing other wildlife species for his own benefit.” The group cited Kennedy’s confession in early August in which he picked up a dead bear cub on the side of the road in Westchester County and abandoned it in Central Park – which sparked a minor controversy at the time.

Kennedy, who last week suspended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Republican candidate and former President Trump, was once a prominent environmental lawyer with the National Resources Defense Council and other environmental nonprofits. Representatives for the former independent candidate’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.

The Center for Biological Diversity Fund published a letter in April accusing Kennedy of being a “dangerous conspiracy theorist and science denier.” The letter was signed by several other environmental groups. NRDC’s Action Fund published its own open letter in April calling on him to resign from the organization.