Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard despatched not less than one criminal referral to the Justice Department looking for investigations of a whistleblower grievance and its dealing with by the intelligence group watchdog that led to the 2019 impeachment of President Donald Trump, a spokesperson for Gabbard’s workplace confirmed Wednesday.
To bolster the referral, Gabbard this week launched paperwork that she mentioned uncovered a “conspiracy used by Congress to impeach President Trump.”
Gabbard’s workplace mentioned the launched paperwork present the then intelligence group inspector common Michael Atkinson didn’t observe coverage within the dealing with of the whistleblower grievance.
The paperwork embody transcripts of Atkinson’s testimony earlier than the House Intelligence Committee in 2019 and notes from interviews with the whistleblower.
NCS has requested remark from Atkinson. The referral was first reported by Fox News.
Atkinson spent 15 years on the Justice Department earlier than serving as inspector common of the intelligence group from 2018 to 2020. Atkinson’s popularity as a straight shooter prompted some lawmakers who had been in any other case skeptical of the whistleblower grievance to take the doc severely, NCS previously reported.
Trump fired Atkinson in April 2020, elevating issues that the president was meddling within the work of what are supposed to be unbiased watchdogs.
Gabbard has used her tenure main the intelligence group to push political claims by Trump that he was the sufferer of false allegations tying him and his marketing campaign to Russia.
In latest months, Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe have launched paperwork looking for to undermine the 2017 intelligence evaluation that concluded the Russia interfered within the 2016 US election and sought to assist Trump.
Ratcliffe additionally made a criminal referral focusing on John Brennan, the previous CIA director.
A ODNI spokesman confirmed the criminal referral to the Justice Department “related to one or more former employees of the intelligence community and their role in the 2019 impeachment of President Trump.”
In latest months, Gabbard has been the topic of a whistleblower grievance of her personal.
The present intelligence group inspector common final yr notified Congress that it had acquired the grievance alleging {that a} extremely categorised intelligence report had been “restricted for political purposes.”
Gabbard has the denied the claims.