WASHINGTON — Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s workplace warned an legal professional for a whistleblower Monday he couldn’t temporary members of Congress on his shopper’s claims with out risking the disclosure of categorized data.
ODNI Basic Counsel Jack Dever advised Andrew Bakaj that he had no authorized authority to deliver the criticism in opposition to Gabbard to members of the Home and Senate intelligence committees.
“The extremely categorized nature of the underlying criticism will increase the chance that you simply or your shopper inadvertently or in any other case breaks the legislation by divulging or mishandling categorized data,” wrote Dever, in accordance with a duplicate of the letter reviewed by The Put up.
“You’ll have different technique of showing in entrance of Congress, however this isn’t it.”
Dever additionally famous that the criticism, which was filed with appearing Intelligence Neighborhood Inspector Basic (ICIG) Tamara Johnson’s workplace this previous Could, has been twice deemed non-credible.
“[D]espite your contentions on the contrary, the protections and rights attributed to whistleblowers, together with your shopper, don’t prolong to you,” he mentioned. “The complainant stays approved to inform Congress of the ‘reality of’ their criticism, not particulars of the contents.”
Bakaj was additionally accused of getting falsely alleged misconduct by Gabbard, who Dever mentioned “has adopted the legislation all through this course of.”
“Any allegations on the contrary are baseless and don’t precisely replicate the DNI’s actions to maintain the related Congressional committees absolutely knowledgeable,” the ODNI common counsel added.
Johnson had served within the Biden administration earlier than being elevated to the highest intelligence watchdog publish. She was succeeded by present ICIG Christopher Fox, who “administratively closed” the matter in June 2025.
Not a lot is understood in regards to the criticism, although not less than eight congressional leaders reviewed a redacted model of it earlier this month.
“I’ve reviewed this ‘whistleblower’ criticism and the inspector common dealing with of it,” mentioned Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a kind of leaders, in an announcement final week.
“I agree with each inspectors common who’ve evaluated the matter: the criticism will not be credible and the inspectors common and the DNI took the required steps to make sure the fabric has dealt with and transmitted appropriately in accordance with legislation,” he added.
“To be frank, it looks like simply one other effort by the president’s critics out and in of presidency to undermine insurance policies that they don’t like; it’s positively not credible allegations of waste, fraud, or abuse.”
Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) has disputed that, telling CBS Information’ “Face The Nation” Sunday that Johnson, “a long run skilled,” had “seen it [the complaint] as credible.”
However there have been, the truth is, two complaints that Johnson reviewed, one in every of which was deemed not credible and one other of which she couldn’t assess, in accordance with Dever.
The criticism reportedly laid out how the Nationwide Safety Company intercepted a name between two overseas nationals who had been discussing a person near President Trump, Bakaj and a senior US intelligence official beforehand advised CBS.
“We solely noticed it in February, and we’ve obtained this whole contradiction the place the then-lawyer for Director Gabbard mentioned she shared the accountability she needed to share this with Congress in June, the obligation,” Warner advised “Face The Nation.”
“She later said that she was not conscious of her accountability. Ignorance of the legislation will not be an excuse should you’re the Director of Nationwide Intelligence.”
Dever denied that declare Monday, writing: “Given the extremely categorized nature of the underlying allegations that your shopper selected to incorporate, the ICIG’s regular strategies of informing the committees of the allegations had been inadequate to guard beautiful intelligence.”
“Due to this fact, ODNI offered safety steerage that your shopper’s criticism be hand-delivered by the ICIG to the ‘Gang of Eight,’ on a ‘learn and return’ foundation and that no notes be taken. In consequence, ODNI has happy congressional notification necessities.”
Bakaj didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
