Tulsi Gabbard arranged Trump call with FBI agents after Georgia election raid: Sources
Sources say the DNI director arranged the call with Trump following the search.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard arranged for FBI agents who searched the Fulton County Elections and Operations Hub in Georgia last week to have a phone call with President Donald Trump, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.
The president, according to multiple sources, addressed the agents on speakerphone and said they were doing great work in searching and investigating Georgia's elections.
Fulton County officials say FBI agents removed 700 boxes containing ballots and other materials associated with the 2020 election after obtaining a search warrant approved by a federal magistrate judge.
Investigators are going ballot by ballot, searching for any irregularities, sources said.
The phone call was first reported by The New York Times.
It is very unusual for the president and the DNI to speak to line agents from the FBI about an ongoing criminal investigation -- especially one that implicates an election in which Trump was a losing candidate.
Gabbard, in a new letter obtained by ABC News and sent Monday to Democrats Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, described her presence during the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at the Office of the Clerk of the Court of Fulton County, Georgia, in January and framed her involvement as part of what she described as her election security responsibilities.
“My presence was requested by the President and executed under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence (CI), foreign and other malign influence and cybersecurity,” she wrote.
Gabbard also addressed the call involving Trump. “While visiting the FBI Field Office in Atlanta, I thanked the FBI agents for their professionalism and great work, and facilitated a brief phone call for the President to thank the agents personally for their work. He did not ask any questions, nor did he or I issue any directives, she wrote.
She also noted in the letter that the FBI’s Intelligence and Counterintelligence divisions are among the 18 intelligence elements she oversees as DNI.
Gabbard also pointed to the Domestic DNI Rep program, which she said was established in 2011 through a memorandum of understanding between ODNI and the FBI. She said that in multiple FBI field offices, including Atlanta, the senior FBI official, either the assistant director in charge or the special agent in charge, is dual-hatted as her Domestic DNI Representative, and she wrote that she has visited several of those officials nationwide.
Earlier on Monday, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle, in a statement, said, "President Trump pledged to secure America's elections, and he has tasked the most talented team of patriots to do just that. DNI Gabbard and FBI Director [Kash] Patel are working together to implement the President's election integrity priorities, and their work continues to serve him and the entire country well."
Wednesday's search of the election site came after Trump has repeatedly made baseless claims that there was voter fraud in the 2020 election, specifically in Georgia, that contributed to his election loss.
Georgia officials audited and certified the results following the election, and numerous lawsuits challenging the election results in the state were rejected by the courts.
Congressional Democrats are demanding answers about why the president's spy chief -- who normally deals with foreign intelligence threats -- is involved in the election probe.
At a press conference Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, asked about Gabbard's presence during the FBI raid, said, "This administration coordinates everything we do as a group."
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