Meanwhile, Gabbard hasn\u2019t seemed all that interested in dealing with concerns about her own agency.<\/p>\n\n
Back in May, a whistleblower filed a complaint<\/a> with the inspector general alleging wrongdoing by Gabbard and an office in another federal agency. What type of wrongdoing? Who can say! What other federal agency? No idea! But the invocation of some other agency apparently means that the administration can start burbling about executive privilege, the White House, and so on. <\/p>\n\n It\u2019s tough to piece together anything because it\u2019s such top-secret spy versus spy stuff that no one can talk about the complaint, and it\u2019s literally locked in a safe. <\/p>\n\n Indeed, even the whistleblower\u2019s lawyer isn\u2019t allowed<\/a> to see it. So you just have to trust the unnamed official who told the Wall Street Journal that disclosing the complaint could cause \u201cgrave damage to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Now, it isn\u2019t unusual that the public doesn\u2019t yet know the substance of the complaint, particularly if it does indeed involve national security concerns. What is unusual, though, is that Congress does not yet know anything about the complaint either. <\/p>\n\n Normally, an inspector general has two weeks to assess the credibility of a complaint and then, if it is deemed credible, an additional week to transmit it to Congress. But none of that has happened here. Congress only learned about<\/a> the complaint in November when the whistleblower\u2019s lawyer wrote a letter to Gabbard\u2019s office about the unprecedented holdup. <\/p>\n\n According to a spokesperson for Gabbard, the complaint is, of course, \u201cbaseless and politically motivated.\u201d <\/p>\n\n And according to a spokesperson for the inspector general, the claims against Gabbard were not credible, but the inspector general could not make a determination about the other allegations. One wee issue there is that no one even bothered to tell the whistleblower\u2019s lawyer that there was any official determination. <\/p>\n\n \n Related | <\/strong>FBI raids Georgia election site because Trump is a big baby<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n \n Trump\u2019s wholesale destruction of oversight is what got us here. He fired most of the inspectors general right when he took office and has since replaced them with MAGA loyalists. As for the intelligence community, Trump tapped<\/a> Christopher Fox, whose previous gig was as a senior adviser to Gabbard. So neutral!<\/p>\n\n Let\u2019s cut Tulsi some slack\u2014she\u2019s probably very busy of late, particularly with all of the administration\u2019s activities abroad, given it is her literal job to assess foreign intelligence and threats. <\/p>\n\n Oh, wait. She was completely cut out of the planning to invade Venezuela and topple Nicol\u00e1s Maduro because she\u2019d previously expressed opposition<\/a> to military action there. She didn\u2019t even get to be in the shoddy little Mar-a-Lago war room to watch things unfold. <\/p>\n\n Well, that\u2019s just silly. Gabbard has proven she has no real principles and wasn\u2019t ever going to mount a serious opposition to this. Instead, she\u2019s been focused on domestic law enforcement efforts, joining<\/a> the FBI\u2019s Fulton County raid. And that\u2019s the problem: By law, Gabbard can\u2019t actually help with any domestic law enforcement efforts. <\/p>\n\n Her job is to track foreign threats, but there\u2019s no allegation that foreign actors are intending to disrupt elections. If there were, Gabbard would have needed to inform<\/a> Congress, which\u2014you will not be surprised\u2014has not happened.<\/p>\n\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.dailykos.com\/images\/1472347\/large\/AP25043774110688.jpg?1756399366\")
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