Former President Donald Trump’s intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, is embroiled in a controversy due to a whistleblower complaint so sensitive that it has been secured in a safe.
According to the Wall Street Journal, these serious accusations against Gabbard have sparked prolonged deliberations about how to present the complaint to Congress, with some warning it could severely compromise national security.
Described as a ‘cloak-and-dagger mystery,’ the situation allegedly involves a second government agency and raises questions of executive privilege that might extend to the White House, officials have noted.
The whistleblower claims Gabbard is obstructing the process by not providing the requisite security guidance needed for congressional members to examine the complaint.
The intelligence community’s inspector general received this complaint last May, as detailed in a letter from the whistleblower’s attorney to Gabbard sent in November.
A representative for Gabbard has acknowledged the complaint’s existence but dismissed it as “baseless and politically motivated.”
Gabbard’s office also said it was not stonewalling the whistleblower’s allegations but navigating a unique set of circumstances in order to resolve the classified complaint.
A representative for the inspector general told the Journal that it had determined some specific allegations were not credible. The whistleblower’s lawyer, Andrew Bakaj, said they were never informed that any determinations were reached.
The whistleblower accuses Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint by refusing to provide the necessary security guidance for congressional lawmakers to review it
Trump publicly rebuked Gabbard in June after she said during congressional testimony that Iran was ‘not building a nuclear weapon’
The controversy comes as Gabbard has been sidelined in the Trump administration over major national security matters, including Venezuela and Iran
The November letter Bakaj wrote to Gabbard was shared with House and Senate intelligence panels, but lawmakers have not received the complaint months later.
Democratic congressional aides on the intelligence committees have tried to probe for details of the complaint in recent weeks but have not been successful.
The information divulged by the whistleblower is so highly classified that not even Bakaj has been able to view it.
Watchdog experts and former intelligence officials claim the delay in sending the complaint to Congress is unprecedented.
The inspector general is usually required to assess whether the complaint is credible to share with lawmakers within three weeks of receiving it.
The Daily Mail cannot confirm the substance of the allegations.
Director of National Intelligence spokeswoman Olivia Coleman said: ‘This is a classic case of a politically motivated individual weaponizing their position in the Intelligence Community, submitting a baseless complaint and then burying it in highly classified information to create 1) false intrigue, 2) a manufactured narrative, and 3) conditions which make it substantially more difficult to produce “security guidance” for transmittal to Congress.’
The controversy comes as Gabbard has been sidelined in the Trump administration over major national security matters, including Venezuela and Iran.
Instead, Gabbard has been tasked with verifying Trump’s claims of election fraud stemming from the 2020 election.
A joke was being circulated around the White House that Gabbard’s DNI title stood for ‘Do Not Invite,’ following Nicolas Maduro’s capture last month.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly argued that she should be excluded from the mission, with the White House fearing that Gabbard, who in 2019 argued against intervention in Venezuela, would not support Operation Absolute Resolve.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe was front and center as the most senior intelligence official, beamed out in White House pictures that included the President, Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
As DNI, Gabbard is supposed to be Trump’s top intelligence adviser overseeing America’s 18 spy agencies, including the CIA.
Trump publicly rebuked Gabbard in June after she said during congressional testimony that Iran was ‘not building a nuclear weapon.’
The comments were put to the President as he planned to strike the country’s nuclear sites alongside Israel.
‘I don’t care what she said,’ he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
