Gabbard under scrutiny over whistleblower report, election probes
"How the federal election commission is structured [...]Departure on FEC hobbles the election enforcement agency The agency responsible for enforcing federal election law has also lost its ability to proactively make policies. By Jessica Piper 04/30/2025 12:15 PM EDT The Federal Election Commision, the agency responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws, is again without enough members to take official action after a Republican commissioner announced his departure on Wednesday. P - The agency is paralyzed without a quorum and cannot vote on things like the outcomes of investigations, citing committees for campaign finance violations, and issuing advisory opinions or guidance for campaigns. P - Allen Dickerson, who was confirmed to the FEC in 2020, is the second commissioner to willingly depart the agency this year, following Republican Sean Cooksey’s resignation in January. President Donald Trump also sought to fire Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, in February. She publicly contended that the firing was illegal but has not participated in recent commission votes and is no longer listed on the agency’s website. The FEC has six commissioner spots, and four is required for a quorum, but Dickerson’s departure leaves the agency with just three commissioners. [...]Also, never forget Cleta Mitchell What’s really behind Republican obstructionism? "From Gingrich to McCarthy, the Roots of Governance by Chaos Mr. Gingrich began the zero-sum politics that mutated into the brand of the Tea Party and TrumpM.A.G.A. Republicans and that presaged the raucous speaker battle in the House." [...] [INSERT: It really is unbelievably dishonest, debilitating and disgusting. In my lifetime? Never imagined such could happen. And to think he, with Cleta's people et al, really could have illegally stolen the 2024 election .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175773480 Democrats grow concerned Republicans are planting seeds with legal suits to overturn a Trump defeat"
tulsi gabbard, the russian asset has stolen fulton county's ballots and equipment and has been investigating 2020 election results across the country. Fulton isn't the only place she's been. The issue here is fecesface now owns the original evidence and they will find fraud (that doesn't exist against him) - (probably more fraud for him) and claim voter fraud and claim he was elected in 2020 and stop the midterms this year. It is coming and gop nazi's are running criminal attacks and the dems are trying for 'working across the isle' stupidity.
by: Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill Posted: Feb 7, 2026 / 04:20 PM CST Updated: Feb 7, 2026 / 04:21 PM CST
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is coming under scrutiny from lawmakers in both parties for delays in transmitting a whistleblower complaint and her involvement in two different seizures of voting records.
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Gabbard’s office had failed to relay a whistleblower report made last May accusing her of wrongdoing to Congress.
Two days later, Gabbard’s office confirmed its involvement in the seizure of voting machines in Puerto Rico, news that came after the DNI was spotted during the execution of a search warrant in Fulton County, Ga.
Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been highly critical of Gabbard on both fronts, hammering her for failing to swiftly turn over the whistleblower report while calling her involvement in voting a threat to the coming elections.
“It appears there may be a coordinated effort to try to interfere in the ’26 midterm,” Warner said, noting that President Trump said he requested Gabbard be on site for the Fulton County search.
“I think we’ve got a president that can’t get over the fact that he lost in 2020 and now in kind of a Nixonian effort is going to try to do everything he can to make sure he doesn’t get another beating in 2026.”
Involvement in searches of voting centers
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) elections probes were done in conjunction with other agencies, with FBI officials seizing 2020 ballots in Fulton County and voting machines in Puerto Rico after the ODNI said it received allegations of “discrepancies and systemic anomalies.”
Gabbard has taken heat not only for her involvement but for evolving explanations surrounding her presence.
It’s extremely unusual for high-level officials to be on site for the execution of a search conducted by rank-and-file officers and even more unusual for Gabbard, since her intelligence job is focused on foreign countries and is not connected to domestic law enforcement.
Also remarkable was that Gabbard called Trump, who later praised the FBI agents who conducted the warrant.
Under questioning from reporters, Trump administration officials offered a shifting account of why Gabbard was in Fulton County. While a letter from Gabbard to lawmakers said Trump requested her presence, when Trump was asked about the matter he initially said he didn’t know why she was there.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he didn’t know why Gabbard was there, though he argued her presence was appropriate.
Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday said Attorney General Pam Bondi asked Gabbard to be there, though when Bondi was questioned about that Friday, she neither confirmed nor denied the request while describing she and the DNI as “inseparable.”
To Warner it was an ominous sign that the president was involved in the decision to send Gabbard.
“Tulsi Gabbard was down in Atlanta for that crazy raid on the voting machines because Trump asked her to go.Well, how in the hell did Trump know there was about to be a warrant issued in a lame criminal investigation before the act took place? How did he let Gabbard know to go there and then further violate all principles by getting on the phone with the FBI agents who are on the front line of that investigation?” Warner said in a video shared on social platform X.
“This is not how American justice should work,” added Warner, who previously said Gabbard’s involvement in voting matters was meant to curry favor with Trump.
The ODNI has defended Gabbard’s involvement, arguing that election security is national security and that she has the power to be involved in election matters under statute.
“Contrary to the blatantly false and slanderous accusations being made against me by Members of Congress and their friends in the propaganda media, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has and will continue to take action under my statutory authorities to secure our nation and ensure the integrity of our elections,” Gabbard wrote on X.
Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Gabbard had failed to offer “a plausible explanation, or a defensible legal rationale” for her involvement in Georgia or Puerto Rico.
“The intelligence community operates outside the borders of the U.S. for good reason, and the Director of National Intelligence has no business at a law enforcement operation unless there is a legitimate foreign nexus, of which we’ve seen no indication,” he said in a statement.
“If, as she claims, Gabbard has compelling evidence to suggest foreign interference against the election infrastructure in question, she must share that information with Congress immediately. Otherwise, in concert with the President’s call for nationalizing elections, this is a political stunt that raises profound Constitutional questions about ODNI’s mission and integrity.”
Addressing the whistleblower complaint
Gabbard has seen more bipartisan pushback when it comes to a mysterious whistleblower complaint that was delayed in reaching Congress — though Republican Intelligence Committee leaders have since defended the DNI after reviewing the document.
The underlying content of the complaint is not clear, but it concerns an accusation that Gabbard withheld access to classified information for political reasons and also failed to report a crime to the Justice Department. While the Biden-era Inspector General (IG) Tamara Johnson who reviewed the complaint determined the matter would be an “urgent concern” if true, she was unable to assess whether the complaint was credible.
Gabbard has come under criticism for the delay in getting the report to lawmakers as well as for its content.
The complaint was initially made in May, with an unnamed whistleblower’s lawyer calling attention to it by asking Congress to investigate why it took eight months to clear the complaint to share it with lawmakers, rather than a few days or weeks as is typical.
Warner said it took pressure from Republican leadership to get the complaint delivered to Congress this week.
“Why it took the Gang of Eight pressure to get over here is beyond me,” he told The Hill, referring to a group in Congress that includes the leaders of both parties in both chambers, as well as the chair and ranking member of each chamber’s intelligence committee.
Gabbard’s office has said the delay was due to the prior inspector general.
“FACT: The Biden-era IC IG DID NOT inform DNI Gabbard of the requirement for transmittance to Congress. Any perceived ‘delay’ was a result of the former IC IG’s inaction,” the ODNI wrote on X, referring to the intelligence community inspector general.
“FACT: The Biden-era IC IG closed the case and declined further investigation, indicating this was NOT an ‘urgent concern’ requiring prompt congressional notification.”
After seeing the report, both GOP heads of the House and Senate Intelligence panels were dismissive of its content, pointing to both Johnson and subsequent Inspector General Christopher Fox in failing to verify the claims.
“I agree with both inspectors general who have evaluated the matter: the complaint is not credible and the inspectors general and the DNI took the necessary steps to ensure the material has handled and transmitted appropriately in accordance with law,” Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote on X after reviewing the complaint.
“To be frank, it seems like just another effort by the president’s critics in and out of government to undermine policies that they don’t like.”
House Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) also highlighted the apparent conclusion of the inspectors general in saying he found the content “noncredible.”
But Himes said he did not agree with Crawford’s assertion, saying he was alarmed both by the eight-month delay in getting the complaint and the allegations.
“I’m not willing to do what the chairman did, and just based on a 20-minute review, say that the matter is closed. But I’m also really interested in the fact that a process that should have taken a month or two, that is to say, the conveyance of this whistleblower complaint to Congress took eight months, and that’s not OK. That is absolutely not OK,” Himes said.
Himes said his team plans to “pull some threads” to learn more about the complaint.
“If anybody’s characterizing this as a like ‘absolutely nothing to see here,’ that’s not true.”
Whistleblower Aid, the group representing the whistleblower, criticized Cotton for failing to address the lengthy delay.
“With all due respect, @SenTomCotton’s defense of @ODNI and @DNIGabbard’s stonewalling — for eight months — a whistleblower complaint with grave national security implications sounds an awful lot like scripted talking points aimed at covering up a damning complaint and preventing Congress from exercising critical oversight,” the group wrote on X.
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