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Published
9 hours ago
on
February 2, 2026
The official spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is defending her boss with charged language over an explosive report by The Wall Street Journal that alleges a whistleblower’s accusations are so highly classified they have not been shared with Congress for eight months.
The attorney for the whistleblower has reportedly accused Gabbard’s office of stonewalling. The complaint is said to be so highly classified that the whistleblower’s attorney has not been able to see it.
“A cloak-and-dagger mystery reminiscent of a John le Carré novel is swirling around the complaint, which is said to be locked in a safe,” the Journal reported. “Disclosure of its contents could cause ‘grave damage to national security,’ one official said. It also implicates another federal agency beyond Gabbard’s, and raises potential claims of executive privilege that may involve the White House, officials said.”
According to the Journal, the delay with sharing the complaint with Congress is “without known precedent, according to watchdog experts and former intelligence officials.”
“The inspector general is generally required to assess whether the complaint is credible within two weeks of receiving it, and share it with lawmakers within another week if it determines it is credible.”
Olivia Coleman, Gabbard’s press secretary, slammed the Journal’s report on social media, calling it “not true,” “one of the most disgusting cases of clickbait I have ever seen,” “trash,” and a “nothingburger story” that was “written like a salacious gossip column.”
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Coleman insisted there has been “absolutely NO wrongdoing by DNI Gabbard,” and claimed that the Journal “buried” that “fact” 13 paragraphs into the article.
“Gabbard answered written questions about the allegations from the inspector general’s office, a senior official at the spy agency said,” that paragraph reads. “That prompted the acting inspector general at the time, Tamara Johnson, to determine the allegations specifically about Gabbard weren’t credible, the official said. Johnson remains employed at the agency, which didn’t make her available for an interview.”
Coleman called the whistleblower allegations “a classic case of a politically motivated individual weaponizing their position in the Intelligence Community, submitting a baseless complaint and then burying it in highly classified information to create 1) false intrigue, 2) a manufactured narrative, and 3) conditions which make it substantially more difficult to produce ‘security guidance’ for transmittal to Congress.”
Mark S. Zaid, a prominent national security attorney, responded to Coleman’s post, writing: “Don’t believe what you read people. Perhaps someone should ask the Intel Committees if this is true. Do you not think this was checked beforehand? And where is the DNI OIG [Office of Inspector General] investigation? Many questions to answer.”
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