Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard detailed her ongoing election safety evaluation in a letter to congressional lawmakers Monday, saying President Trump “particularly directed” her to be current for the execution of a search warrant in Fulton County, Georgia final week as a part of the probe.
Gabbard despatched a letter, solely obtained by Fox Information Digital, addressed to Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Home Intelligence Committee Rating Member Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. The letter was additionally despatched to Home and Senate management, in addition to GOP management on each committees.
The letter is in response to at least one despatched final week by Warner and Himes, during which they request Gabbard transient them on why she was current on the FBI search of an election workplace in Fulton County, Ga. final month.
Gabbard introduced in April 2025 that ODNI was investigating digital voting programs with the intention to shield election integrity.
Within the letter, obtained by Fox Information Digital, Gabbard stated President Trump “particularly directed” her to be on the FBI’s execution of a search warrant on the Workplace of the Clerk of the Court docket of Fulton County, Georgia final month—on Jan. 28, 2026.
“For a quick time frame, I accompanied FBI Deputy Director Bailey and Atlanta Appearing Particular Agent in Cost Pete Ellis in observing FBI personnel executing that search warrant, issued by america District Court docket for the Northern District of Georgia pursuant to a possible trigger discovering,” she writes.
Gabbard stated her “presence was requested by the President and executed beneath my broad statutory authority to coordinate, combine, and analyze intelligence associated to election safety, together with counterintelligence (CI), overseas and different malign affect and cybersecurity.”
“The FBI’s Intelligence/Counterintelligence divisions are one of many 18 components that I oversee,” she stated.
Gabbard stated that in twelve FBI subject workplaces throughout the nation, together with the Atlanta Area Workplace, the senior FBI official (assistant director in cost or particular agent in cost) is “dual-hatted as my Home DNI-Consultant.”
“The Home DNI-Rep program was established in 2011 via a Memorandum of Understanding between the ODNI and FBI,” Gabbard defined. “Home DNI-Reps are distributed by area and give attention to particular home problems with concern or curiosity, together with threats to vital infrastructure.”
Gabbard stated that she has visited “a number of” of her Home DNI-Reps throughout the nation.
“Whereas visiting the FBI Area Workplace in Atlanta, I thanked the FBI brokers for his or her professionalism and nice work, and facilitated a quick cellphone name for the President to thank the brokers personally for his or her work,” Gabbard stated. “He didn’t ask any questions, nor did he or I concern any directives.”
Gabbard confused that the ODNI’s Workplace of Basic Counsel “has discovered my actions to be constant and properly inside my statutory authority because the Director of Nationwide Intelligence.”
Final week, FBI brokers have been seen finishing up a search at an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia, a location that turned floor zero for issues and complaints about voter fraud starting in 2020.
The search warrant approved the seizure of election data, voting rolls and different knowledge tied to the 2020 election, in line with a duplicate of the warrant reviewed by Fox Information.
Gabbard went on to handle particular questions initially posed by Warner and Himes, first, detailing how election safety “is a nationwide safety concern.”
“Interference in U.S. elections is a risk to our republic and a nationwide safety risk,” she writes. “The President and his Administration are dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of U.S. elections to make sure that neither overseas nor home powers undermine the American individuals’s proper to find out who our elected leaders are.”
Gabbard stated that President Trump “tasked ODNI with taking all applicable actions” beneath her statutory authorities in direction of “guaranteeing the integrity of our elections and particularly directed by observance of the execution of the Fulton County search warrant.”
Gabbard once more famous that ODNI has been “actively reviewing intelligence reporting and assessments on election integrity” since she took workplace.
“As a part of the Nationwide Counterintelligence and Safety Middle’s duty to guide, handle, and coordinate counterintelligence issues associated to election safety, NCSC personnel traveled with me to Fulton County to assist this effort,” Gabbard wrote. “They weren’t current in the course of the execution of the warrant.”
Gabbard goes on to emphasize that the DNI has “broad authority to coordinate, combine, and analyze intelligence associated to election safety.” Gabbard additionally added that ODNI is “the lead intelligence company within the Joint Cyber Planning Workplace,” which coordinates and oversees the nation’s technique to safe vital cyber infrastructure, “together with cyber infrastructure used for elections.”
Gabbard additionally informed lawmakers that ODNI “is not going to irresponsibly share incomplete intelligence assessments regarding overseas or different malign interference in U.S. elections.”
“As I publicly acknowledged on 10 April 2025, there’s data and intelligence reporting suggesting that digital voting programs being utilized in america have lengthy been susceptible to exploitation that might lead to enabling decided actors to govern the outcomes of the votes being solid with the intent of fixing the result of an election,” she wrote.
“ODNI and the IC proceed to gather and assess all accessible intelligence regarding this risk to make sure the safety and integrity of our elections,” she stated.
In April 2025, Gabbard stated ODNI is investigating election integrity. She stated, on the time, that ODNI had “proof of how digital voting programs have been susceptible to hackers for a really very long time and susceptible to exploitation, to govern the outcomes of the votes being solid.” Gabbard made the feedback throughout a Cupboard assembly, stressing to the president that the data “additional drives ahead your m mandate to result in paper ballots throughout the nation in order that voters can think about the integrity of our elections.”
In the meantime, within the letter, Gabbard defined that the method of assessing the intelligence “ensures that the IC’s completed intelligence merchandise are goal, unbiased of political concerns, and based mostly on all accessible sources.”
“I’ll share our intelligence assessments with Congress as soon as they’re full,” she stated.
Gabbard stated that the Nationwide Safety Act of 1947 particularly highlights that the legislation does “not require that the president get hold of approval from the congressional intelligence committees earlier than initiating a major intelligence exercise.”
“Furthermore, america District Court docket for the Northern District of Georgia issued the search warrant on the Workplace of the Clerk of The Court docket of Fulton County beneath seal,” she writes. “As such, I’ve not seen the warrant or the proof of possible trigger that the DOJ submitted to Court docket for approval.”
She added: “Subsequently, the ODNI had no capability, authority, or duty to tell the committees concerning the search warrant forward of its execution.”
President Trump final week touted Gabbard on her work to guard elections within the U.S.
“She’s working very onerous on making an attempt to maintain the election protected. And he or she’s completed an excellent job,” Trump stated. “And so they, as you already know, they obtained into the votes, you bought a signed decide’s order in Georgia…And also you’re going to see some fascinating issues taking place. They’ve been making an attempt to get there for a very long time.”
In the meantime, the Justice Division sued Fulton County in December in search of entry to ballots associated to the 2020 lawsuit, although the FBI’s search seems unrelated.
Fulton County is combating the lawsuit and says the Justice Division has not made a legitimate argument for accessing the data.
