Whistleblower Complaint Against Tulsi Gabbard Reportedly Involved Jared Kushner

AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

The classified whistleblower complaint alleging wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard involved an intercepted discussion about Jared Kushner between two foreign nationals, a new report claims.

U.S. officials familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that allegations were made about Kushner in the conversation that would be significant if proven to be true, though they agreed that there was as yet no evidence corroborating the discussion’s claims.

Senior Trump administration officials told the paper that the allegations about Kushner were demonstrably false, claiming they were unable to give further information about the contents of the conversation for fear of exposing a sensitive surveillance method.

The nationalities of those in the intercepted discussion and the content of their conversation have not yet been reported.

The alleged discussion of Kushner tracks with previous reports on this highly secretive complaint against Gabbard. Multiple outlets reported last week that the complaint was based on a covertly intercepted conversation between persons linked to foreign governments discussing a person close to President Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported that the conversation was partially about Iran.

The paper’s Thursday report noted:

Like in Trump’s first term, when he orchestrated peace talks between Israel and Arab nations, Kushner touts his business background as an asset in diplomacy, often deriding career government officials as too bureaucratic and slow. He is now running an investment fund, Affinity Partners, which has drawn billion-dollar investments from the Arab monarchies, and has pursued potential projects around the world.

The whistleblower’s complaint alleges that Gabbard restricted the distribution of intelligence about this conversation for political purposes, the intelligence community’s inspector general, Christopher Fox, and multiple reports have claimed. Gabbard allegedly met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to discuss the intercept, after which she limited the distribution of the report.

The whistleblower’s attorney, Andrew Bakaj, accused Gabbard’s office of stonewalling the standard process for such complaints, as the report was not made accessible to lawmakers – including the Gang of Eight – for months after it was filed.

Leaders of Congress’ intelligence committees were allowed to read the complaint last week. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Gabbard took the appropriate steps to deal with the complaint, which he deemed was uncredible, while his Democratic counterpart Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) claimed he couldn’t determine the complaint’s credibility because so much of its contents were redacted.

Gabbard’s office has stated that the redactions were within her legal authority, despite Bakaj’s continued calls for Congress to be shown an unredacted complaint. The DNI has also called the allegations within the complaint “baseless and politically motivated,” claiming that the former acting inspector general decided the parts of the complaint about Gabbard were not credible.

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