Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a sharp response to accusations that she concealed a classified whistleblower complaint, rejecting the claim outright and placing the blame on Sen. Mark Warner and what she described as allied media outlets for promoting false allegations.

In a public post, Gabbard said the charge that she personally hid a complaint was fabricated. “Senator Mark Warner and his friends in the Propaganda Media have repeatedly lied to the American people that I or the ODNI ‘hid’ a whistleblower complaint in a safe for eight months,” she wrote.

She followed with an unequivocal denial, stating, “This is a blatant lie.”

Gabbard emphasized that she never had custody of the complaint and therefore could not have concealed it. “I am not now, nor have I ever been, in possession or control of the Whistleblower’s complaint, so I obviously could not have ‘hidden’ it in a safe,” she wrote, adding that “Biden-era IC Inspector General Tamara Johnson was in possession of and responsible for securing the complaint for months.”

According to Gabbard, her first exposure to the document occurred only recently and was limited in scope. “The first time I saw the whistleblower complaint was 2 weeks ago when I had to review it to provide guidance on how it should be securely shared with Congress,” she wrote.

Her remarks came after The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week on a top secret complaint submitted by an anonymous government insider, alleging that Gabbard had withheld classified material for political reasons and delayed transmitting the complaint to Congress.

Gabbard countered that the handling of the document was appropriate given its contents, arguing that the level of classification required strict security measures. “As Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Warner knows very well that whistleblower complaints that contain highly classified and compartmented intelligence, even if they contain baseless allegations like this one, must be secured in a safe,” she wrote.

She added that the security protocols did not change after congressional leaders were briefed. “After IC Inspector General Fox hand-delivered the complaint to the Gang of 8, the complaint was returned to a safe where it remains, consistent with any information of such sensitivity,” she said.

Gabbard went on to question Warner’s understanding of intelligence procedures, suggesting either deliberate dishonesty or incompetence. “Either Senator Warner knows these facts and is intentionally lying to the American people, or he doesn’t have a clue how these things work and is therefore not qualified to be in the U.S. Senate, and certainly not the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee,” she wrote.

Laying out a detailed chronology, Gabbard said she was first informed in June 2025 that a whistleblower complaint had been filed against her. She stated that after review, “neither Biden-era IC Inspector General Tamara Johnson nor current IC Inspector General Chris Fox found the complaint to be credible.”

She further explained that the document was stored securely because of the way it was drafted, saying it was locked away since “the complainant chose to include highly sensitive information within the complaint itself,” instead of citing intelligence at a lower classification level.

Addressing claims that she violated statutory deadlines, Gabbard argued that the legal requirements were misrepresented. “When a complaint is not found to be credible, there is no timeline under the law for the provision of security guidance,” she wrote, noting that the “21 day” rule applies only when a complaint is deemed “both urgent AND apparently credible.”

She stressed that those conditions were not met, adding, “That was NOT the case here.”

Gabbard said she received notice from Inspector General Chris Fox on Dec. 4, 2025, that security guidance was required and said she responded without delay. “I took immediate action to provide the security guidance,” she wrote, explaining that the inspector general then transmitted the complaint to Congress last week.

She closed her statement by accusing Warner of politicizing the issue, writing, “Senator Warner’s decision to spread lies and baseless accusations over the months for political gain, undermines our national security and is a disservice to the American people and the Intelligence Community.”

{Matzav.com}