The whistleblower complaint that Trump’s spy chief locked away in a safe implicated someone with close ties to the president of having contact with foreign intelligence.
A whistleblower’s lawyer told The Guardian that last spring, the National Security Agency detected what the outlet reported on Saturday as “an unusual call” between someone associated with foreign intelligence and an individual close to President Donald Trump.
When National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard was informed, she took a paper copy of the memo to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The day after that meeting, she instructed the NSA to send the highly classified details to her office instead of publishing them, according to the whistleblower’s attorney Andrew P. Bakaj.
Gabbard was accused of hiding the complaint made against her in a safe. Bakaj, who was briefed on the sensitive phone call, told The Guardian that the whistleblower first contacted the office of the intelligence community inspector general about the burying of the highly classified materials on April 17, 2025.
The whistleblower then filed a formal complaint on May 21, 2025. That complaint did not become known to Congress until November.
A leaked memo revealed that the complaint accused Gabbard of refusing to share a “highly classified intelligence report” for “political purposes.” Tamara Johnson, the inspector general at the time, dismissed the complaint last June because she “could not determine if the allegations appear credible.”
Alexa Henning, deputy chief of staff for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), slammed the Guardian’s report on X, saying the “leaker lied.”
DNI press secretary Olivia Coleman also called the report false in a statement to The Daily Beast, blaming “self-serving actors” for “leaking lies and half-truths.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.
“Every single action taken by DNI Gabbard was fully within her legal and statutory authority,” Coleman told the Beast.
She said the DNI could not “debunk” the “lies and false reporting” because the office is “committed to protecting classified sources, methods, and the Whistleblower’s rights.”
Coleman also reiterated that the complaint had been dismissed by Johnson, who was appointed under former President Joe Biden, and the current inspector general, Christopher Fox.
Johnson did inform the whistleblower in her determination letter that the person could bring the complaint to Congress. She said the whistleblower needed to receive guidance from the DNI on how to submit information to lawmakers due to the sensitive nature of the complaint.
Gabbard claimed in a nearly 600-word X post on Saturday that Johnson did not inform her that the whistleblower wanted to take the complaint to Congress. While she knew about the complaint and confirmed that it was kept in a safe, she denied that she “hid” the information and first saw the complaint two weeks ago.
She slammed Virginia Senator Mark Warner, who is the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, and “his friends in the Propaganda Media” for perpetuating that narrative.
The spy chief said she was informed that she needed to provide security guidance to share the complaint with Congress in December.
“I took immediate action to provide the security guidance to the Intelligence Community Inspector General who then shared the complaint and referenced intelligence with relevant members of Congress last week,” she posted.
While Gabbard said she sent guidance to the inspector general, Bakaj, the whistleblower’s attorney, sent a letter to Gabbard on Tuesday stating that his client had not received such direction.
The letter stated that if the DNI did not provide security guidance by Friday, then Bakaj would share an unclassified briefing with the House and Senate intelligence committees on Feb. 9. He also attached a copy of his correspondence to Gabbard, sent on Nov. 21, 2025, asking how his client should approach Congress with the complaint.
The Daily Beast reached out to Bakaj for comment.
Gabbard has been largely sidelined from national security conversations by the Trump Administration. However, amid the controversy around this stalled complaint, she has been working on a project to prove Trump’s allegations that the 2020 election was stolen.
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