Whistleblower complaint alleges Tulsi Gabbard 'locked down' NSA report on Kushner: Report

Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), finds herself embroiled in a controversy involving a whistleblower complaint that was allegedly kept hidden for eight months. An anonymous intelligence official filed a complaint in May 2025 alleging that Gabbard withheld or "locked down" highly sensitive intelligence for political reasons. The complaint mentioned an intercepted discussion about Jared Kushner between two foreign nationals, a Wall Street Journal report claims. The NSA-intercepted phone call has the two of them talking about an individual close to President Trump. Some reports suggest that they are discussing Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. Officials familiar with the matter told WSJ that there was as yet no evidence corroborating the discussion’s claims. The nationalities of those in the phone call and the content of their conversation have not yet been released.

Whistleblower's attorney, Andrew Bakaj, accused Gabbard of stonewalling, noting the complaint was kept in a secure safe and not shared with Congress until February 2026, despite legal requirements for timely disclosure. She is said to have met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to discuss the intercept. The intelligence community’s inspector general, Christopher Fox, and multiple reports have claimed that she restricted the distribution of intelligence about this conversation after this meeting. Meanwhile, senior Trump administration officials told the paper that the allegations about Kushner were false. They refused to share more details, citing a probable leak of a secret surveillance method.

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Redactions in the released complaint about ‘person close to Trump’

Last week, there were reports about this highly secretive complaint against Gabbard, which claimed that the people on the call were discussing a person close to President Donald Trump. With Kushner's name now cropping up, the two things are aligning. The conversation also involved Iran, WSJ reported. Congress’s intelligence committee leaders read the complaint last week. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Gabbard dealt with the complaint just as she should have and called it out as "uncredible". His Democratic counterpart, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) slammed the release sying it was hard to determine the complaint’s credibility because several portions were redacted. Gabbard's office said that the redactions were within her legal authority.