Republicans reject anonymous complaint accusing Tulsi Gabbard of mishandling intel

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A top-secret complaint from an anonymous government insider alleging that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard withheld classified information for political reasons has been rejected by Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees, a development that Democratic lawmakers said still leaves unanswered questions about how quickly the matter was sent to Congress. Republicans said the complaint is unlikely to proceed further after their responses shared with lawmakers who had viewed the document.

The responses came this week from Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Rick Crawford, the chairmen of the Senate and House intelligence committees respectively. Democrats who reviewed the heavily redacted complaint continued to press for explanations, including why Gabbard’s office took about eight months to refer it to the intelligence committees’ designated members, as required by law.

Gabbard’s office rejected any allegations of wrongdoing and also disputed criticism of the referral timeline. According to the office’s response, the complaint contained so many classified details that it necessitated an extensive legal and security review before it was referred.

Cotton said the complaint did not appear to be credible and pointed to a prior inspector general conclusion. In an X post shared with reporters, the Arkansas Republican wrote, “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,” adding that he agreed with the earlier watchdog conclusion. Cotton’s office referred inquiries about the complaint to that social media post.

Crawford, the Arkansas Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, also rejected the complaint, saying he believed it was intended to smear Gabbard’s reputation.

Democrats pushed for explanations focused on process and timing. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the law requires such a report to be sent within 21 days. “The law is clear,” Warner said at the Capitol on Thursday. “I think it was an effort to try to bury this whistleblower complaint.” Warner also said he had questions about the complaint’s details, noting that the document was heavily redacted.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a written statement that he would keep looking into the matter.

A memo to lawmakers from the intelligence community’s inspector general said the anonymous complaint also accused Gabbard’s office general counsel of failing to report a potential crime to the Department of Justice. The memo, which included redactions, did not provide further details on either allegation.

The inspector general’s memo referenced prior review of the central allegation about classified information. Last June, then-inspector general Tamara Johnson found that the claim that Gabbard distributed classified information along political lines did not appear to be credible, according to the current inspector general’s memo. The memo said Johnson was “unable to assess the apparent credibility” of the accusation involving the general counsel’s office, and Christopher Fox, the current inspector general, wrote that he would have deemed the complaint non-urgent but respected the earlier decision to send it to lawmakers.

Lawmakers received copies of the complaint this week through the “Gang of Eight,” a group that includes the House and Senate leadership from both parties as well as the four top lawmakers on the intelligence committees. Andrew Bakaj, an attorney for the person who made the complaint, said in a statement to The Associated Press that there was no justification for keeping the complaint from Congress since last spring, but he said he could not discuss the details or identity of the author. Bakaj, who is a former CIA officer and now chief legal counsel at Whistleblower Aid, also said he had heard “significant redactions were made” to the complaint before it was provided to members of Congress, and he argued that the level of redactions made it unlikely that anyone could reach the conclusions Cotton issued.

Gabbard coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. She has also drawn attention recently for another matter involving her appearance on site last week when the FBI served a search warrant on election offices in Georgia that Trump’s administration has cited in connection with disproven claims about 2020 election fraud.