A whistleblower complaint filed in May with claims of wrongdoing by DNI head Tulsi Gabbard has been locked down in a vault and has not been shared with Congress. One official told the Wall Street Journal, who broke the story, that the information is so highly classified it would cause “grave damage to national security” if exposed.
Andrew Bakaj, the whistleblower’s attorney, accuses Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint which was filed to the inspector general of the intelligence community.
“Some complaints involve exceptionally sensitive materials necessitating special handling and storage requirements,” a representative for the inspector general told WSJ, explaining why documents were being kept locked in a safe. “This case is one of them.”
When an inspector general receives a complaint, there is typically two weeks from the date the complaint is received to determine if the complaint is credible. If deemed credible, it normally goes to Congress within another week.
A whistleblower is allowed to share information directly with congressional intelligence committees, provided the DNI has given instructions on how to securely transmit the information. Gabbard has provided no instructions, therefore the whistleblower complaint has not been shared.
Members of the House and Senate intelligence panels first learned of the complaint in November, six months after it was filed, when a copy of Bakaj’s letter was shared with them, WSJ reports. Since then, Democratic staffers have tried unsuccessfully to learn more about it.
Bakaj himself has not been able to view the complaint because of its highly classified nature, and Gabbard calls the complaint “baseless and politically motivated.”
Bakaj previously represented the unnamed CIA agent who was concerned with the “perfect phone call” between Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky, which led to Trump’s first impeachment.