WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump watched a live feed of the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was not in the room. Just two days earlier, she had posted photos of herself on a beach in Hawaii at sunset practicing yoga, sending out a new year’s greeting for “peace.”
That she appeared to be on vacation in the run-up to such a high-stakes, ultra-sensitive military operation seemed to underscore the extent to which she has been sidelined by the administration.
But there she was on Wednesday, at an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, as FBI agents conducted a raid seeking ballots from the 2020 presidential election, which Trump has falsely claimed he won.
Gabbard’s presence baffled national security experts and raised questions about whether she is seeking new relevancy in the eyes of a president who had soured on her.
“Even if there was some criminal activity in the 2020 election in Georgia — despite repeated investigations that show there was none — it’s still a purely domestic problem — not one involving foreign nations,” a former national security official said. “The director of national intelligence has nothing to do with this.”
Accompanying FBI agents on a raid is unprecedented for the chief of U.S. intelligence, whose job is to track threats from foreign adversaries. In her role overseeing the country’s spy agencies, Gabbard is prohibited by law from taking part in domestic law enforcement. Her predecessors took pains to keep their distance from Justice Department cases or partisan politics.
Asked about the rationale for her visit to Georgia, a senior administration official said: “Director Gabbard has a pivotal role in election security and protecting the integrity of our elections against interference, including operations targeting voting systems, databases, and election infrastructure.”
The official added: “She has and will continue to take action on President Trump’s directive to secure our elections and work with our interagency partners to do so.”
Two senior officials with knowledge of the matter said Gabbard’s presence in Fulton County was unnecessary and was not requested by the Justice Department. But they added that Gabbard was merely observing the execution of the FBI search warrant, and there was nothing illegal in her presence.
“It seems to be an attempt to make herself relevant,” one official said. “It’s so strange.”
Late Thursday, Trump responded to a reporter’s question about Gabbard’s presence at the raid.
“She’s working very hard on trying to keep the elections safe, and she’s done a very good job,” Trump said at the Kennedy Center ahead of the premiere of a documentary about first lady Melania Trump. “You got a signed judge’s order in Georgia, and you’re going to see some interesting things happening. They’ve been trying to get there for a long time.”
At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sharply criticized Gabbard’s decision to travel to Fulton County for the FBI search, saying it was part of a pattern of senior officials blurring the line between intelligence work and domestic politics.
Warner said there were only two explanations for national intelligence director’s trip: either Gabbard believed the case had a link to foreign intelligence, and she failed to abide by her legal obligation to inform congressional committees about it, or she was tarnishing the nonpartisan reputation of the intelligence agencies with a “domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.”
“Either scenario,” Warner added, “represents a serious breach of trust and a dereliction of duty to the solemn office which she holds.”
In a letter to Gabbard, Warner and the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, demanded the national intelligence director brief lawmakers as part of her legal obligation to keep the committees fully informed about relevant intelligence matters.
“It is also deeply concerning that you participated in this domestic law enforcement action,” the two lawmakers said in a letter to Gabbard. “The Intelligence Community should be focused on foreign threats and, as you yourself have testified, when those intelligence authorities are turned inwards the results can be devastating for Americans privacy and civil liberties.”
During Trump’s first term in office, his administration set up an effort across the government to identify and counter foreign adversaries trying to undermine U.S. elections. But Gabbard last year dismantled a center designed to track foreign actors seeking to interfere in American elections or institutions, and the Justice Department and State Department also shut down similar offices.
Over the past year, Gabbard has clashed with two of her counterparts in the administration, FBI Director Kash Patel and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, in what officials described as a struggle for influence inside the administration.
In October, the FBI strongly objected to a proposal by some House lawmakers to strip the bureau of its authority over counterintelligence operations and hand them over to Gabbard’s office, warning that the plan would sow confusion and undercut national security. In the end, the FBI retained its primary authority over counterintelligence.
The search of the Fulton County election center follows Trump’s repeated baseless claims that the 2020 election result was fraudulent and that he was the legitimate winner, not Joe Biden.
During his remarks this month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump raised the issue with foreign leaders and corporate chiefs in the audience, saying, “People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Trump and his supporters have offered various theories — without detailed evidence — as to why they claim the 2020 election was “rigged,” none of which held up in a series of court cases. Some Trump allies have falsely claimed foreign actors were involved, without providing details.
“It is unclear what the foreign intelligence nexus is to the service of an FBI search warrant on a board of elections in Atlanta,” said Kevin Carroll, a former CIA officer and now a lawyer handling national security cases. “Absent such a nexus, ODNI’s involvement in the matter is wrong and potentially even illegal” if she took part in the search.
He added: “It is also inappropriate for a Cabinet-level official to take part in a law enforcement operation. Among other things, the director is now potentially a fact witness in any suppression hearing or trial related to the evidence seized by the bureau.”