US Politics
Tulsi Gabbard helped put Trump directly in touch with agents raiding a Georgia election office: report
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Tulsi Gabbard called Donald Trump directly so that he could speak to agents raiding a Georgia election office, a new report claims, as questions continue to swirl around why the National Intelligence boss was at the scene at all.
Gabbard contacted the president on her own cell phone, though he did not initially pick up and called her back, according to The New York Times.
Trump then talked with members of the FBI’s field office in Atlanta who are conducting the raid in Fulton County, where the president has consistently, and falsely, alleged that illegal activity took place, which resulted in the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” from him.
According to The Times, Trump asked the agents several questions and praised their work during the call, which lasted around a minute. Three people familiar with the conversation told the outlet that the interaction was more like a pep rally or halftime speech from a sports coach.
No specific directions were given by the president to the investigators, the source added.
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The Independent has contacted the White House, the FBI and the Department of Justice for further information on the reported call, as well as Gabbard’s presence in Fulton County, which was reportedly also ordered by the president personally.
It comes after other government officials denied that Trump was directly involved with the planning or approval of the raid. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday: “This is a criminal investigation, so it’s tightly-held, as it must be under the law,” Blanche claimed.
However, Blanche would not answer what potential crime was under investigation and struggled to explain why Gabbard was there.
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“I don’t know why the director was there. But she is for sure a key part of our efforts at election integrity and making sure we have free and fair elections. She’s an expert in that space,” he said.
Blanche added that Gabbard “can go where she needs to go”, but could not answer what purpose the DNI was serving by overseeing an FBI raid, which falls under the jurisdiction of the DOJ.
The presence of a DNI in the field on an operation is highly unusual, as her role in overseeing U.S. intelligence agencies does not include in-person involvement in criminal investigations.
Blanche said that the operation in Fulton County was carried out after a federal magistrate judge granted FBI agents a warrant to seize the voting records as part of a “criminal grand jury investigation.”
