Lawyers for a whistleblower who’s filed a complaint against Donald Trump’s spy chief are threatening to sue if she doesn’t move forward with disclosing the allegations it contains.
The highly classified complaint is said to accuse Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard of concealing a report about suspected foreign intelligence officials discussing a figure close to the president.
“Our client—with legal counsel present—desires to meet directly with the intelligence committees to ‘submit the complaint or information’ that is contained within their ‘urgent concern’ complaint,” attorneys Andrew Bakaj and Mark Zaid wrote in a letter to Gabbard’s office Wednesday morning, shared with the Daily Beast.
“All that is needed and that we await is the appropriate security guidance on how to do so,” they added, setting a deadline of Friday. “Please note that your failure to do so may lead to our pursuing litigation before the appropriate U.S. District Court to compel the DNI’s compliance with the law.”
Bakaj has accused Gabbard’s office of trying to bury the whistleblower complaint for eight months as it remains under lock and key in a safe at the office of the intelligence community’s inspector general.
Last week, he sent a letter to Gabbard with an ultimatum to provide security guidance on how to brief Congress on the contents of the complaint, which is required for it to move forward. He threatened to go directly to the House and Senate intelligence committees if no guidance was provided. That deadline was set for Friday, but Gabbard’s office fired back on Monday with a warning that the whistleblower’s legal team would risk possible prosecution if they disclosed classified information to Congress.
“The highly classified nature of the underlying complaint increases the risk that you or your client inadvertently or otherwise breaks the law by divulging or mishandling classified information,” ODNI general counsel Jack Dever wrote. “You may have other means of appearing in front of Congress, but this is not it.”
Bakaj has accused Gabbard of stonewalling on the complaint after the whistleblower asked that it be transmitted to Congress eight months ago. ODNI has called those accusations “baseless.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported the existence of the classified complaint and accusations against Gabbard on Feb. 2. That same day, ODNI provided the intelligence community inspector general with security guidance to transmit the complaint to Congress after months of delays.
In his communication to the top officials on the congressional intelligence committees on Feb. 2, Inspector General Christopher Fox wrote that the complaint would be available for the so-called “Gang of Eight” to review.
He noted that the previous acting inspector general deemed one of the allegations in the complaint not credible and was unable to determine if the second allegation was credible.
While the details of the complaint remain unclear, The Guardian reported on Saturday that the National Security Agency (NSA) flagged a call between two foreign intelligence officials last spring discussing a person close to Donald Trump.
The communication was brought to Gabbard’s attention, but rather than allowing the NSA to distribute it further, she took it to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to Bakaj.
After meeting with Wiles, Gabbard allegedly told the NSA not to publish the intelligence report but to send details directly to her office.
The whistleblower contacted the office of the inspector general about Gabbard allegedly blocking the routine dispatch of classified intelligence last April and filed the formal complaint in May.
Last week, a small group of top lawmakers were able to review the complaint.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton said in a statement after reviewing it that he agreed with the inspector generals that “the complaint is not credible and the inspectors general and the DNI took the necessary steps to ensure the material has handled and transmitted appropriately in accordance with law.”
But Ranking Member Mark Warner said that what he reviewed was overly redacted, making it hard to draw conclusions, but he warned he had major concerns about the process and massive delays in it being transferred.
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