Urges Hearing and Investigation into Dangerous Abuse of Power that Puts Americans at Risk 

WASHINGTON, DC Feb. 2, 2026 — WhistleblowerAid.org is calling on Congress to open an investigation into Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard for hiding high-level intelligence from Congress for nearly eight months and her attempts to bury a whistleblower disclosure about her own actions, the reporting of which is required by law.

In May of last year, a whistleblower represented by WhistleblowerAid.org first alerted the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) about the concern. In June 2025, the whistleblower, consistent with the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, requested that their disclosure be transmitted to Congress. Since then, Director Gabbard has repeatedly stonewalled and thwarted its release because she is the subject of that complaint.

“After nearly eight months of taking illegal actions to protect herself, the time has come for Tulsi Gabbard to comply with the law and fully release the disclosure to Congress,” WhistleblowerAid.org Chief Legal Counsel Andrew P. Bakaj said. “The Inspector General’s independence and neutrality is non-existent when the Director of National Intelligence illegally inserts herself into the process.”

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has tried to justify its inaction with numerous claims – including executive privilege, which generally refers to the power of the president to withhold confidential information or private discussions from Congress.

“Such a grave dereliction jeopardizes the ability of Congress to exercise its legally mandated oversight of the US Intelligence Community, including agency covert operations.” Bakaj said.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the complaint remains “locked in a safe” because “its disclosure could cause ‘grave damage to national security,’ one official said. It also implicated another agency beyond Gabbard’s, and raises potential claims of executive privilege that may involve the White House,” the Journal reported, citing unnamed officials.

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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.