FBI opposes House plan granting Tulsi Gabbard key counterintelligence role, signalling interagency rift

There are strong signs of an inter-agency conflict underway. A bill in the US House of Representatives proposes shifting the lead of Federal Counter-Intelligence efforts from the FBI to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, by extension, a role for Tulsi Gabbard. FBI ‘strongly’ opposed such a move in a sharply worded letter to Congress.

This is the second time the bureau has clashed with the Director of National Intelligence. Earlier, Joe Kent, the director of the counterterrorism centre, one of the closest advisors to Tulsi Gabbard, tried to access files related to the murder of Charlie Kirk and to investigate whether he had support from anyone else, a foreign power or another entity. FBI Director Kash Patel was troubled and believed Mr Kent was overstepping.

This time around, it is about the Intelligence Authorisation Act, which proposes to overhaul counter-intelligence operations, elevating Gabbard's role from limited oversight and partial involvement to direct control of activities.

The unclassified FBI letter obtained by the Times uses words like “vigorously disagrees with” and “strong objection,” expresses concern that it would cause “serious long-lasting” damage to national security. FBI asserted that it had a decade of experience in counterintelligence, and the DNI will push the agency through the labyrinth of bureaucracy. “Would a counterintelligence-related prosecution be considered an ‘activity’ that must receive approval from this new Director, outside of the current DOJ chain?" read the letter. "Would that give the new Director of the Counterintelligence Centre authority over the FBI/Attorney General for all counterintelligence investigations?”

However, people in the intelligence community said that the letter is “a pre-emptive response" to a “deliberative process document" which is not final yet.

On the one hand, this will diminish the statutory power of the FBI, which it holds over the counter-intelligence authority; on the other hand, this will give more authority to DNI (via Gabbard) to oversee the intelligence and law enforcement. The bill, if approved, will create a counter-intelligence czar. Officials argue that this was not the purpose of the creation of DNI, and the FBI argues that this could likely compromise operational integrity, due to possible confusion of jurisdiction between the DNI, the FBI and other organisations.

“While our adversaries in the Chinese Communist Party, Russia, Iran and terrorist groups operate on a war footing against the United States, too often we have remained reactive, complacent and risk-averse,” said Senator Mark Warner.

Moreover, there had been speculation within the intelligence community about Tulsi Gabbard, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute called her views ‘so wildly fringe that her potential appointment as DNI is genuinely alarming’. Tulsi, an Iraq War veteran, had called the Syrian conflict “regime-change war” fueled by the West and viewed Russia and the Assad regime as legitimate defenders against an extremist uprising. These are some controversial opinions to hold, and now her push to investigate Charlie Kirk's death for foreign involvement does not make her a desirable figure within the US intelligence community. However, if the role of Gabbard becomes highly partisan or politicised, then institutional trust might erode.