A whistleblower complaint alleging wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is so highly classified that it has been locked in a safe and withheld from Congress for eight months, creating what officials describe as an unprecedented breakdown in intelligence oversight.
The complaint’s classification level is so extreme that disclosure could cause “grave damage to national security,” one official told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the complaint’s existence on February 2. The document remains physically secured in a safe inside the intelligence community inspector general’s office, inaccessible even to the whistleblower’s own attorney.
Congress, which holds constitutional oversight authority over intelligence agencies, learned of the complaint’s existence only in November — six months after it was filed. Even members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, who hold the highest security clearances and are legally entitled to oversee intelligence operations, have been unable to view the complaint.
Andrew Bakaj, the attorney representing the whistleblower, accused Gabbard’s office of stonewalling the complaint’s transmission to Congress. In a statement released through WhistleblowerAid.org, Bakaj said the eight-month delay represents illegal actions by Gabbard to protect herself.
“The Inspector General’s independence and neutrality is non-existent when the Director of National Intelligence illegally inserts herself into the process,” Bakaj said.
The Wall Street Journal reported the complaint also implicates another federal agency and raises potential claims of executive privilege involving the White House. Watchdog experts and former intelligence officials told the Journal the eight-month delay appears without a known precedent. Under normal procedures, the inspector general has two weeks to assess credibility and another week to transmit a credible complaint to lawmakers.
Gabbard’s office called the complaint “baseless and politically motivated.” DNI Press Secretary Olivia Coleman said the high level of classification made the review process “substantially more difficult.”
The intelligence community’s inspector general determined specific allegations against Gabbard were not credible after receiving written answers from her, though the office could not reach a determination on other allegations. Bakaj said he was never informed of any credibility determinations.
The dispute emerged as Gabbard faced scrutiny for her presence at an FBI search of election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, on January 28. She facilitated a phone call between President Donald Trump and FBI agents conducting the search. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Gabbard’s Georgia appearance either a failure to inform Congress about foreign intelligence concerns or a “domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories.”
The whistleblower complaint surfaced amid broader concerns about Gabbard’s management of intelligence oversight. In May 2025, Gabbard replaced the acting counsel to the intelligence community inspector general with one of her senior advisers without approval from the acting inspector general. Four senior Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Gabbard in June expressing “grave concern” about her “illegal interference” with the inspector general’s independence.
In October, Senate Republicans confirmed Christopher Fox as the new intelligence community inspector general. Fox previously worked as a senior adviser to Gabbard, drawing questions about his ability to remain impartial.
Bakaj is a former CIA intelligence officer who served as lead counsel for the Ukraine whistleblower whose complaint led to Trump’s first impeachment in 2020.
Gabbard was confirmed as director of national intelligence on February 12, 2025, in a 52-48 Senate vote. Only one Republican, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, joined all Democrats in opposing her confirmation, citing her “history of alarming lapses in judgment.”
No one knows who filed the complaint, where they work, or what Gabbard allegedly did. Congress normally receives whistleblower complaints within three weeks — not eight months.
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