Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard responded to an accusation that she hid a whistleblower complaint for nearly eight months on X Saturday, calling it a “blatant lie.”
Earlier this week, Whistleblower Aid said in a statement that in May 2025, a person they represented told the Intelligence Community Inspector General about their complaint. In June, that whistleblower requested that this disclosure be transmitted to Congress.
“Since then, Director Gabbard has repeatedly stonewalled and thwarted its release because she is the subject of that complaint,” Whistleblower Aid, a non-profit legal organization that works with public and private sector workers, said.
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A report by The Wall Street Journal said the complaint is “locked in a safe” because “its disclosure could cause ‘grave damage to national security,’” one official said.
Gabbard said in her X post, that she has “not now, nor have I ever been, in possession or control of the Whistleblower’s complaint.”
“I obviously could not have ‘hidden’ it in a safe,” she wrote. Instead, Gabbard said her first time seeing the complaint was two weeks ago, when she had to “review it to provide guidance on how it should be securely shared with Congress.”
Gabbard said she became aware that a whistleblower made a complaint against her in June 2025.
“I was made aware of the need to provide security guidance by [Intelligence Community] Inspector General Chris Fox on December 4, 2025, which he detailed in his letter to Congress,” she wrote. “I took immediate action to provide the security guidance to the Intelligence Community Inspector General who then shared the complaint and referenced intelligence with relevant members of Congress last week.”
Whistleblower law mandates the director of national intelligence must share credible complaints with a group called the “Gang of Eight.” The Gang of Eight consists of the House speaker, the House minority leader, the Senate majority leader, the Senate minority leader and the chairpeople and ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees.
Whistleblower complaint back-and-forth
In her statement, Gabbard mentioned Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who previously criticized her over the whistleblower’s claims.
Warner told NBC News the monthslong delay in showing the complaint to lawmakers showed Gabbard is “either not competent to do the job,” or not getting competent legal advice. To CNN, Warner said he has “huge concerns” about how the complaint was handled.
“Somebody’s not telling the truth about what they knew or who knew the law or didn’t know the law,” Warner said.
On Saturday, Gabbard said “Senator Mark Warner and his friends in the Propaganda Media have repeatedly lied” about the situation. Warner, she said, “knows very well” that whistleblower complaints containing highly classified intelligence must be secured in a safe. Inspector General Tamara Johnson, who worked under the Biden administration, did that, Gabbard said, as did Fox.
“After IC Inspector General Fox hand-delivered the complaint to the Gang of 8, the complaint was returned to a safe where it remains, consistent with any information of such sensitivity,” Gabbard said.
Neither Fox nor Johnson found the complaint credible, Gabbard claimed.
Warner knows these facts, Gabbard said. She accused him of either “intentionally lying to the American people,” or not knowing how these systems work, which Gabbard said disqualifies him from being in the Senate.
Rachel Cohen, Warner’s communications director, said in a statement to NBC Saturday that Gabbard’s post is “an inaccurate attack that’s entirely on brand for someone who has already and repeatedly proven she’s unqualified to serve as DNI.”
Whistleblower organization pushes back
Whistleblower Aid, in a statement of its own, pushed back on Gabbard’s remarks that both Inspectors General did not find the complaint credible. In Johnson’s case, the organization said, the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) was unable to make a determination on the complaint’s credibility in a 14-day window.
Included with Whistleblower Aid’s post was an ICIG letter that it said showed that Gabbard was provided the complaint in June 2025.
“FACT: You’re the DNI. What was going on in your office between June 5 and December 4 that you weren’t made aware of the request? Did you look into why for six months the ICIG neglected to relay the request for guidance?” Whistleblower Aid asked.
