An explosive whistleblower complaint about National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard is currently “locked in a safe” and remains inaccessible to lawmakers trying to review it, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
“A cloak-and-dagger mystery reminiscent of a John le Carré novel is swirling around the complaint, which is said to be locked in a safe,” the Journal report reads. “It also implicates another federal agency beyond Gabbard’s, and raises potential claims of executive privilege that may involve the White House, officials said.”
Lodged last May with the intelligence community’s inspector general, the complaint’s contents remain unknown — though the Journal reported "a U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard."
If disclosed, could cause “grave damage to national security,” one official told the Journal on the condition of anonymity.
Its existence was first made known to lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees last November after the whistleblower’s attorney sent a letter to Gabbard accusing her office of blocking lawmakers’ access to it, a letter that was reviewed by the Journal and first reported on Monday. The staff for Democratic lawmakers on intelligence committees have tried to gain access to the complaint, but to “little success,” the outlet reported.
“From my experience, it is confounding for [Gabbard’s office] to take weeks – let alone eight months – to transmit a disclosure...
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