By DAVID KLEPPER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has withheld a complaint made about her conduct from members of Congress for eight months, claiming the delay is needed for a legal review, an attorney for the person making the allegations said Monday.
The complaint was reviewed by the office of the intelligence community’s inspector general, which deemed it not credible, Gabbard’s office said. The person then sought to have the complaint referred to members of Congress’ intelligence committees, as is permitted by federal law, but that has not occurred.
Andrew Bakaj, the attorney for the person who made the complaint, said he could not identify his client, their employer or offer specifics about the allegations because of the nature of their work. But he said there’s no justification for keeping the complaint from Congress since last spring.
There was no delay in getting the complaint to members of the intelligence committees, Gabbard’s press secretary Olivia Coleman said, though she added that the number of classified details in the complaint made the review process “substantially more difficult.”
Gabbard’s office disputed the claims, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Coleman noted that the inspector general who deemed the complaint non-credible wasn’t selected by Gabbard and began their work during then-President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Director Gabbard has always and will continue to support whistleblower’s and their right, under the law, to submit complaints to Congress, even if they are completely baseless like this one,” Coleman wrote in a post on X.
Gabbard coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. In an unusual role for a spy chief, she was on site last week when the FBI served a search warrant on election offices in Georgia central to Trump’s disproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election, raising questions from Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees.
Bakaj, meanwhile, has asked Congress to investigate the handling of the complaint.
A spokesperson for Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Gabbard pledged under oath during her confirmation hearing that she would protect whistleblowers and make sure Congress was kept informed.
“We expect her to honor those commitments and comply with both the letter and the spirit of the law,” Warner’s office said in a statement.
The inspector general’s office, which is tasked with providing independent oversight of the intelligence community, did not immediately respond to questions about the complaint.
A former intelligence officer with the CIA, Bakaj previously represented an intelligence community whistleblower whose account of a phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy helped initiate the first of two impeachment cases against the Republican leader during his first team.
Trump was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate in February 2020 over the call during which he asked the Ukrainian president for a “favor” — to announce he was investigating Democrats including 2020 rival Joe Biden.
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.