Lawyers cite ‘deliberate’ obstruction of top-secret complaint
WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 11, 2026—Lawyers for the whistleblower accusing Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard of withholding a sensitive disclosure from Congress for nearly eight months responded today to the DNI’s General Counsel.
The whistleblower’s attorneys accused the Trump Administration of deliberately stonewalling efforts to allow their client to brief congressional leaders on the matter and vowed to file a lawsuit unless the Administration shares the required security guidance by the end of the week.
“It is difficult to reach any other conclusion but that the DNI is deliberately obstructing our client’s ability to directly communicate with the congressional intelligence committees and provide a briefing of the contents of their whistleblower complaint,” Whistleblower Aid Chief Legal Counsel Andrew P. Bakaj and founder Mark S. Zaid wrote in a letter sent today to Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) General Counsel Jack Dever.
The anonymous whistleblower called out DNI Director Gabbard for inappropriately limiting access to their complaint, which was first lodged in May 2025, blocking wider distribution. Gabbard is a subject of the complaint.
“It’s now been over eight months since our client requested to proceed to the congressional intelligence committees—a request that is consistent with the law. In fact, we made it clear in our response to the General Counsel that we are in ‘absolute agreement’ that all classified information must be safeguarded. This is why the whistleblower—even before retaining Whistleblower Aid—proceeded with lawfully disclosing their concerns to the Inspector General. If anything, this underscores their commitment to following all established processes and procedures.”
The letter is copied to Intelligence Community Inspector General Christopher Fox, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In a letter dated Feb. 7, Dever, the ODNI General Counsel, rejected the whistleblower’s right to brief Members of Congress about the case.
“Therefore, we ask again that you comply with our request to provide the appropriate security guidance and proposed next steps by no later than Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Please note that your failure to do so may lead to our pursuing litigation before the appropriate US District Court to compel the DNI’s compliance with the law.”
The House and Senate committees are legally mandated to conduct oversight of US spy agencies, and their chairs and vice chairs are authorized—along with four other congressional leaders—to access highly classified materials.
“The highly classified nature of some intelligence poses significant security challenges in sharing it, the letter said, “but it is not an impossible task—and certainly not one that should have taken nearly eight months. In fact, notwithstanding our asking on multiple occasions, as detailed below, it still has not occurred.”
“Our client—with legal counsel present—desires to meet directly with the intelligence committees to ‘submit the complaint or information’ that is contained within their ‘urgent concern’ complaint,” it said. “Urgent concern” broadly denotes, under US law, a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation, or failure of law or executive order related to US intelligence activity that is a matter of national security.
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Whistleblower Aid provides pro bono legal, advocacy, and communications support to government and private sector whistleblowers acting in the public interest. The organization’s lawyers have represented some of the most consequential national security and Big Tech whistleblowers in history, including Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, the anonymous intelligence community whistleblower whose disclosures led to the first impeachment of President Trump, and others.
