Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Monday released documents she said exposed a deep state conspiracy behind President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, escalating a fight over the whistleblower complaint that helped trigger the 2019 case.
The documents did not spell out any new examples of the whistleblower working hand in glove with Democrats, but they did identify the whistleblower as a CIA officer who was an expert on Ukraine, had worked closely with President Joe Biden on Ukraine issues, and had received death threats from Trump supporters. The materials also said the whistleblower was a registered Democrat, while a colleague described the person as a star performer who was very detail oriented, credible and trustworthy, and deliberate, methodical and very squared away. A supervisor called the whistleblower an excellent employee and a credible person with credibility across the intelligence community.
Gabbard said the release showed how “deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States.” She also said, “Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth,” and added that the whistleblower process had been politicized by “a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress.”
The documents sit inside a broader dispute over the complaint tied to Trump’s 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Former intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson said his preliminary review found “some indicia of an arguable political bias on the part of the Complainant in favor of a rival political candidate,” but he also said that evidence did not change his view that the complaint “appears credible.”
Democrats in the dispute have said Gabbard’s claims are false and amounted to conspiracy theories, while Republicans argue the materials were not shared with Trump’s impeachment defense lawyers. The release ensures the fight over the origins of Trump’s first impeachment is not just being relitigated, but reframed as a battle over whether the intelligence community or its critics gets the last word on what happened in 2019.