Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has taken the extraordinary step of inserting herself into a federal probe of the 2020 election as she hunts for elusive proof of voter fraud.
Gabbard was on the scene Wednesday after FBI brokers executed a search warrant for the Fulton County elections workplace, close to Atlanta. The search was associated to an effort by the Justice Department to grab voting information and seek for alleged fraud within the county, a supply aware of the matter told NCS.
The transfer seems to offer a possibility for Gabbard to curry favor with President Donald Trump by supporting his false however unrelenting claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Trump on Thursday night time praised Gabbard for “working very hard to try to keep the election safe” when requested by NCS why she was current throughout the search. “You’ll see some interesting things happening,” Trump mentioned. “They’ve been trying to get there for a long time.”
There have been ideas Gabbard had fallen out of favor with the president, and NCS beforehand reported that she was left out of not less than one key dialogue amongst senior officers over Iran final 12 months as Trump noticed her as “off-message” on Middle East coverage.
States run elections, not the federal authorities. The director of nationwide intelligence oversees all overseas intelligence assortment. Their conventional function in US elections is to guard them from overseas interference.
The robust suspicion amongst Georgia election officers, a supply near these officers instructed NCS, is that Gabbard is looking for a connection between the data the FBI seized in Fulton County and overseas interference within the 2020 election. Georgia officers are bracing for the chance that Gabbard will attempt to resurrect doubtful claims about Chinese interference within the 2020 election, the supply mentioned.
If there’s a overseas nexus to the Trump administration’s probe of Fulton County, officers haven’t revealed it. Georgia was the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election outcomes.
“We know through intelligence and public reporting that electronic voting systems have been and are vulnerable to exploitation,” a DNI spokesperson mentioned in a press release. “President Trump’s directive to secure our elections was clear, and DNI Gabbard has and will continue to take actions within her authorities, alongside our interagency partners, to support ensuring the integrity of our elections.”
The spokesperson didn’t reply when NCS requested what overseas nexus there was to the Fulton County probe.
“Federal law clearly assigns the DNI and her office with the statutory responsibility to lead counterintelligence matters related to election security, which includes assessing risks to election voting systems, software, voter registration databases and more … and analyzing foreign interference,” an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence mentioned.
Gabbard was slated to talk to the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) on Friday afternoon however in the end didn’t attend the convention “due to scheduling conflicts,” a NASS spokesperson mentioned. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had been additionally set to look on the convention, a White House official mentioned this week. But none in the end confirmed.
Anticipation had constructed all through the day Friday amongst election officers of each events that somebody from the Trump administration would clarify what the administration was doing in Fulton County. No rationalization got here.
The NASS convention is often a staid affair the place election officers focus on finest practices and listen to about legit overseas threats to elections.
Democrats are perplexed and offended
Democratic election officers reacted with a mixture of rage and bewilderment to Gabbard’s Fulton County go to.
“In what world would Tulsi Gabbard have any role in addressing us?” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold instructed NCS. “And I think the answer is probably why she’s in Georgia. It’s probably some election denialism conspiracy BS that she’s going to spout.”
Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, one other Democrat, instructed NCS on Thursday that she deliberate to boycott Gabbard’s look when it was nonetheless on the books. Thomas mentioned she was “angry” that Trump cupboard members who had a historical past of questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election or attacking election directors had been even invited to the convention.
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray praised the Trump administration’s work on elections when requested for remark in regards to the Fulton County probe. “I’m going to talk with the DNI about that, and I’m excited to hear their findings,” Gray, a Republican, instructed reporters on Friday.
Election consultants mentioned Gabbard’s journey to Fulton County could possibly be a boon for any prison protection.
“Director Gabbard’s presence, without any legal authority to be [in Fulton County], raises serious questions about this collection of alleged evidence,” mentioned David Becker, government director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, which works with election officers of each events.
“If criminal charges are ever brought, and I think there’s nearly zero chance of that, I’d expect any defense counsel to make a significant issue of her presence and interference,” Becker instructed NCS.
Sen. Mark Warner, the highest Democrat on the intelligence committee, slammed Gabard’s presence in Fulton County.
Either Gabbard “believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus – in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and currently informed’ of relevant national security concerns,” Warner mentioned.
The different risk, Warner’s assertion continued, is Gabbard “is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.”
Gabbard’s presence in Fulton County “shouldn’t be questioned” as a result of election integrity is “a big part of her job,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche asserted at a press convention Friday when requested about Gabbard’s presence in Fulton County.
“This administration coordinates everything we do as a group,” Blanche mentioned.
NCS’s Marshall Cohen contributed reporting.