Tulsi Gabbard was spotted at the Fulton County Election Hub and operations center during a controversial FBI raid last week. The director of national intelligence has now offered an explanation for her presence at the Georgia voting office.
Gabbard was present as FBI agents seized materials related to the 2020 election, including ballots and computers. Following her appearance during the raid, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, sent a letter to Gabbard demanding an explanation.
Why is Tulsi Gabbard at an FBI raid on an election office in Fulton County? pic.twitter.com/46Shpciw08
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) January 29, 2026
On X, formerly Twitter, the explanation was posted Monday night in a letter addressed to members of the Select Committee on Intelligence. In the letter, the director of national intelligence wrote, “For a brief period of time, I accompanied FBI Deputy Director Bailey and Atlanta Acting Special Agent in Charge Pete Ellis in observing FBI personnel executing that search warrant, issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia pursuant to a probable cause finding.”
“My presence was requested by the President and executed under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence (CI), foreign and other malign influence and cybersecurity,” Gabbard added in the statement.
In the caption of her post, she also criticized “Members of Congress and their friends in the propaganda media.” She wrote, “Contrary to the blatantly false and slanderous accusations being made against me by Members of Congress and their friends in the propaganda media, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has and will continue to take action under my statutory authorities to secure our nation and ensure the integrity of our elections.”
Contrary to the blatantly false and slanderous accusations being made against me by Members of Congress and their friends in the propaganda media, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has and will continue to take action under my statutory authorities to secure our… pic.twitter.com/eX4Kdnp8oU
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) February 3, 2026
In her explanation, Gabbard also confirmed that she facilitated a phone call between some of the agents who were at the raid and Donald Trump. She also explained why she did not brief lawmakers about possible threats to election security prior to the raid at the Georgia offices, writing that her decision was not to “irresponsibly share incomplete assessments.”
“I will share our intelligence assessments with Congress once they are complete,” she wrote in the letter.
Although she did provide an explanation for her presence at the raid, sources said her continued presence ruffled feathers. People with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times that it created a complicated situation, “given that her role overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies does not include on-site involvement in criminal investigative work.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN’s Dana Bash that he also “didn’t know why the director was there.”
“She is not part of the grand jury investigation but she is for sure a key part of our efforts at election integrity and making sure that we have free and fair elections,” Bash said Monday.
