The fact that the FBI executed a search warrant last week on an elections office in Georgia is itself a burgeoning controversy. The raid was an obvious extension of Donald Trump’s ongoing crusade related to his 2020 election defeat. Effectively a vehicle for the president’s discredited conspiracy theories, there was no credible reason for federal law enforcement to seize these election materials.
Similarly, there was also no reason for Trump to personally thank the frontline FBI agents for their work.
But the whole mess was made worse by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s decision to personally participate in the Atlanta-area raid, adding a scandalous element to the story.
An NBC News report explained, “In her role overseeing the country’s spy agencies, Gabbard is prohibited by law from taking part in domestic law enforcement.”
On Monday afternoon, the DNI began mounting a defense of sorts, sending a four-page letter to Capitol Hill (the correspondence was addressed to top Democrats on the intelligence committees, but it was sent as well as to several other members from both parties and both chambers). In it, Gabbard didn’t merely try to justify her participation in the raid; she also confirmed that Trump directed her to go to Fulton County and that she facilitated a call between the president and the FBI personnel.
If Gabbard and her office expected this to end the controversy, they have reason to be disappointed.
After Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, received the DNI’s letter, his communications director said in a statement, “While Director Gabbard’s letter attempts to justify her presence at the Fulton County search, it raises more questions than it answers. Senator Warner plans to continue pressing for accountability.” Similarly, a former senior national security official told MS NOW that Gabbard’s role in the Georgia was “jaw dropping. There’s no justification for it.” The former official said that no previous DNI had ever taken similar steps and noted how outraged Republicans would be if, for example, Avril Haines, the Biden administration’s director of national intelligence, had been present during the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. “It would be denounced,” the former official added. “The DNI is supposed to not be involved in politics or even involved in Justice Department activities.” This emerging scandal, in other words, is far from over.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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