WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is the subject of a mysterious whistleblower complaint that reportedly has languished for months while officials decide what to do about it.
Details of the complaint, first reported Monday by the Wall Street Journal, are not known, but an attorney for the whistleblower, Andrew Bakaj, accused Gabbard in a November letter of preventing lawmakers from receiving it.
“There was absolutely NO wrongdoing by DNI Gabbard,” a spokesperson for Gabbard’s office, Olivia Coleman, insisted in a statement posted on X.
“Even the Biden-era Intelligence Community Inspector General came to this conclusion, determining that the Whistleblower’s allegations against DNI Gabbard ‘did not appear credible.’”
A spokesperson for the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) told the Journal that specific allegations against Gabbard were found not to be credible while the truth of other claims in the complaint couldn’t be determined.
The ICIG’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
The Journal, citing officials, reported that the May complaint also involves a separate federal agency beyond the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and raises potential issues of executive privilege.
Due to its sensitivity, Bakaj claimed, Gabbard was obligated to provide guidance on what parts of the complaint to send to Congress — which the attorney alleged has not been done.
“From my experience,” Bakaj told the Journal in a statement. “It is confounding for [Gabbard’s office] to take weeks—let alone eight months—to transmit a disclosure to Congress.”
However, an ODNI official told The Post that Gabbard was not informed for months after the complaint was filed that she needed to issue security guidance and did so shortly after learning about the requirement.
The official added that took place shortly after Christopher Fox became the new ICIG this past October.
This person also claimed that Gabbard had no legal obligation to transmit the complaint quickly because it wasn’t deemed credible.
Coleman, the DNI spokesperson, said Monday: “The Whistleblower’s complaint is with the Congressional Intelligence Committees for review.”
“Director Gabbard has always and will continue to support [whistleblowers] and their right, under the law, to submit complaints to Congress, even if they are completely baseless like this one.”
It is unclear whether either panel has reviewed the full complaint and spokespeople for both committees declined to comment on the record.
A copy of the complaint has been locked in a safe because it includes “exceptionally sensitive materials necessitating special handling and storage requirements,” an ICIG representative told the Journal.
Bakaj previously advised a CIA officer who filed a whistleblower complaint in 2019 that ultimately led to President Trump’s first impeachment.
The attorney did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Post.
Gabbard made headlines last week after she was pictured observing the FBI raid on a Fulton County, Ga., election center that Trump’s allies have alleged counted illegitimate ballots during the 2020 election.
Her appearance there revealed that Gabbard has been playing a critical role in the administration’s efforts to investigate allegations that Trump had a second consecutive term stolen from him.
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