Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is getting backup from key lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee, after a highly-classified whistleblower complaint alleging that she restricted the distribution of an intelligence report for political purposes came out.
The “whistleblower complaint against Director Gabbard is just another attempt to smear the Trump administration,” Rep. Austin Scott (R., Ga.), the chair of the subcommittee on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that oversees the DNI, explained to the Washington Reporter. This is Scott’s first public defense of Gabbard amidst the fallout from the whistleblower complaint.
“The media conveniently omits the fact that both the Biden-era [Intelligence Community Inspector General] Tamara Johnson, and current IC IG, Chris Fox, determined the complaint to be non-credible,” Scott added. Gabbard’s own team made similar points to the Reporter in rejecting the report; one GOP senator who viewed the report described it as “bunk.”
The complaint, Gabbard’s press secretary Olivia Coleman, said, is a “classic case of a politically motivated individual weaponizing their position in the Intelligence Community, submitting a baseless complaint and then burying it in highly classified information to create 1) false intrigue, 2) a manufactured narrative, and 3) conditions which make it substantially more difficult to produce ‘security guidance’ for transmittal to Congress.”
Both Scott and other lawmakers criticized the lawyer representing the still-anonymous whistleblower. Andrew Bakaj, Scott told the Reporter, is the “same left-wing lawyer who has used witch hunts in the past to disrupt President Trump and his cabinet.” Bakaj previously represented a whistleblower who was a key player in the arguments Democrats made during their first impeachment of President Donald Trump.
“It is no surprise that Mr. Bakaj, a WhistleblowerAid.org lawyer, would attack Director Gabbard,” Scott added. Gabbard, he said, “is hated by the Democratic Party because of her honesty and effectiveness. She is doing a fantastic job as the Director of National Intelligence, and I look forward to continuing working together to ensure our national security.”
Scott’s defense of Gabbard is in line with what his fellow lawmakers who specialize in the intelligence committee said following the whistleblower complaint. Chair of the House Intel Committee Rep. Rick Crawford (R., Ark.) said that he “concur[s] with the conclusion that the Biden-era IC IG, Tamara Johnson, reached regarding the non-credible nature of the complaint and the re-review that the current IC IG, Chris Fox, conducted, reaching the same conclusion. The ensuing media firestorm — fed by speculation and little fact — was an attempt to smear [Gabbard] and the Trump administration. This is the same deep state playbook used by the fake whistleblower that sparked the first Trump impeachment witch hunt, even using the same lawyer. The deep state works hard, but [Gabbard] and her team work harder. You know you are right over the target when they are deploying every tool in their arsenal against you.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that he agrees 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.”
“To be frank,” Cotton continued, “it seems like just another effort by the president’s critics in and out of government to undermine policies that they don’t like; it’s definitely not credible allegations of waste, fraud, or abuse.”
