Gabbard said that to preserve the integrity of American elections, officials must determine whether there has been malign interference.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard on Feb. 2 defended her presence at a Fulton County elections office while FBI agents executed a search warrant there, saying President Donald Trump had requested that she go to the Georgia office and that she has the authority to take action related to election integrity and security.
“Interference in U.S. elections is a threat to our republic and a national security threat,” Gabbard said in a letter to members of Congress.
“The president and his administration are committed to safeguarding the integrity of U.S. elections to ensure that neither foreign nor domestic powers undermine the American people’s right to determine who our elected leaders are.”
She said that Trump tasked her office with taking appropriate action under the authority granted by Congress toward ensuring the integrity of elections, and specifically directed her to observe the execution of the warrant in Fulton County near Atlanta on Jan. 28.
She also said she facilitated a call in which Trump briefly thanked the agents for their work. Trump did not ask any questions during the call, and neither the president nor Gabbard issued directives, she said.
“Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by the president to oversee the sanctity and the security of our American elections. She’s working directly alongside the FBI Director Kash Patel,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday. “This is a coordinated, whole-of-government effort to ensure that our elections are … fair and transparent moving forward. I don’t see anything wrong with the president tasking a cabinet member to pursue an issue that most people want to see solved.”
FBI officials previously described agents as executing a court-authorized warrant about a month after the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against the county seeking voting records from the 2020 presidential election. County officials have said the records were under seal and could not be produced absent a court order.
Trump has alleged that he lost in Georgia in 2020 because of election fraud.
