WASHINGTON (AP) — Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Tulsi Gabbard warned the lawyer of an unnamed government employee Monday not to directly share a top-secret complaint about Gabbard’s handling of classified material with members of Congress.
The letter to attorney Andrew Bakaj is the latest escalation in back-and-forth allegations related to the secret complaint, which alleges Gabbard withheld top-secret material for political reasons.
Two inspectors general for the intelligence community reviewed the claim and found that a particular allegation did not appear to be credible. Gabbard has denied any wrongdoing and said she did everything she could to make sure the report reached Congress.
Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees criticized Gabbard’s office for its handling of the complaint, questioning why it took eight months for it to be sent to select members of Congress, as required by law.
Here’s what you need to know about the claim and next steps:
What is known about the complaint
The anonymous complainant works for a US intelligence agency and filed a report in May alleging Gabbard withheld classified information for political reasons. Gabbard oversees the coordination of 18 intelligence agencies.
The complaint made two allegations, according to a memo sent to lawmakers by the current inspector general, Christopher Fox: The first is that “the distribution of a highly classified intelligence report was restricted for political purposes,” while the second accuses Gabbard’s general counsel of failing to report a potential crime to the Justice Department.
In June, then-Inspector General Tamara Johnson found that the claim that Gabbard shared classified information along political lines did not appear to be credible, Fox said in the memo to lawmakers. Johnson was “unable to assess the apparent credibility” of the allegation about the general counsel’s office, Fox wrote.
The watchdog said it would have considered the complaint non-urgent, meaning it would never have been submitted to MPs.
“If the same or a similar matter were before me today, I would likely determine that the allegations do not meet the statutory definition of ‘urgent concern,'” Fox wrote.
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets reported that the complaint stemmed from a call between two foreign nationals that mentioned someone close to President Donald Trump and was intercepted by the National Security Agency. The news, which cited anonymous sources, said the discussion involved Iran and that Gabbard personally notified the White House, while the complaint accused her of blocking the NSA from reporting the interaction to other agencies. The AP could not immediately confirm the reports.
The NSA declined to provide details of the complaint on Monday, saying in a statement that it is working closely with the FBI and others to investigate the mishandling or disclosure of classified information.
Gabbard’s office alerts the attorney
Bakaj, a former CIA officer and attorney for the complainant, offered to meet with certain lawmakers or their staff to discuss his allegations and concerns about Gabbard’s review.
ODNI’s general counsel warned of this in his letter on Monday, noting that Bakaj or his client could face criminal charges if they improperly disclosed classified material during the briefing.
“The highly classified nature of the underlying complaint increases the risk that you or your client may accidentally or otherwise violate the law by disclosing or mishandling classified information,” the general counsel’s office wrote. “You may have other means of presenting yourself to Congress, but this is not it.”
Bakaj did not immediately respond to questions Monday about the letter.
Under federal law, whistleblowers have the right to ask to have their complaints sent directly to key lawmakers, even if the inspector general deems them not credible, as long as the allegations are deemed urgent. That determination was made by the original watchdog, but the complaint didn’t reach lawmakers until last week.
Copies of the top-secret complaint were hand-delivered starting last week to the “Gangs of Eight” — a group made up of House and Senate leaders from both parties, as well as the top four lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees.
Additional meetings for the remaining members are scheduled for Wednesday.
Democrats criticize the delay while the GOP backs Gabbard
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he would push Gabbard for more answers about the underlying complaint and why it took so long to send the report to lawmakers.
The number of redactions makes it difficult to assess the allegations, he said.
“The fact that this has been sitting there for six, seven, eight months now and we’re just now seeing it raises huge concerns in itself,” Warner said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Republicans who lead the intelligence committees are backing Gabbard, making it less likely that the committees will take further action to investigate the complaint.
“It seemed like an effort by the president’s critics to undermine him,” Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote on Saturday.
Intelligence chief responds to criticism
Gabbard noted in a lengthy social media post Saturday that Johnson was named acting inspector general for the intelligence community during President Joe Biden’s administration.
She included a detailed timeline that she said shows she acted quickly to ensure the complaint reached Congress. Gabbard wrote that she was aware of the complaint in June and believed the investigation was over after it was found not credible, only for the inspector general’s office to inform her in December that the complaint must be revised, redacted and sent to members of Congress.
“We took immediate action to provide security guidance to the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, who then shared the complaint and cross-referenced the information with relevant members of Congress last week,” Gabbard wrote.
She also accused Warner and the media of trying to use the complaint to smear her name.