Tulsi Gabbard responds to senator's criticism over handling of whistleblower complaint
Source: NBC News
Feb. 7, 2026, 7:35 PM EST / Updated Feb. 7, 2026, 10:45 PM EST
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard responded to criticism from Sen. Mark Warner and others that she allegedly "hid" a complaint from a whistleblower. "Senator Mark Warner and his friends in the Propaganda Media have repeatedly lied to the American people that I or the ODNI 'hid' a whistleblower complaint in a safe for eight months," Gabbard said in a post on X. "This is a blatant lie."
A U.S. intelligence official alleged wrongdoing by Gabbard in the handling of a whistleblower complaint that was filed with the intelligence community's inspector general in 2025, according to the official's lawyer and Gabbard's office. The official's attorney, Andrew Bakaj, said the complaint was filed with the intelligence community's inspector general in May and the whistleblower asked in June to share their complaint with lawmakers.
Warner, D-Va., is the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He told NBC News Thursday that Congress didn't receive the complaint until February and that "much of it was redacted."
The senator said that the monthslong delay to share the complaint with lawmakers showed that Gabbard is "either not competent to do the job, or if her legal advisors didn’t tell her she didn’t have competent legal advice." "This was, again, a complete avoidance of and I think it was an effort to try to bury this whistleblower complaint," Warner said.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/tulsi-gabbard-responds-senators-criticism-handling-whistleblower-compl-rcna257952
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