Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard talks to reporters at the White House on July 23, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Tulsi Gabbard used to champion whistleblowers. As a member of Congress, she believed leaks were a necessary tool in revealing illegal actions taken by the government, and took principled, controversial stands opposing the prosecution of Julian Assange and supporting the pardon of my client Edward Snowden. But Gabbard’s principles went out the door when she joined Donald Trump’s administration as director of national intelligence. She helped lead an anti-leak hysteria that is taking over the federal government. And now, someone is blowing the whistle on her.
Because of Gabbard’s past support of whistleblowers, increased public profile as DNI and ongoing rumors concerning the state of her relationship with Trump, which has appeared to be in constant flux, this case has attracted substantial media attention since it was first revealed by the Wall Street Journal on Feb. 2. The story has many layers, and the media has missed several key points involving Gabbard’s conflict of interest and how the whistleblower system has been an abject failure.
As an attorney who represented Thomas Drake, one of the earliest intelligence community whistleblowers to have used the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, I know this territory intimately.
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