Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Friday she has ordered an investigation into “politically motivated leaks” from inside the intelligence community and is also probing internal chat rooms for any misconduct by employees.
“Politically motivated leaks undermine our national security and the trust of the American people and will not be tolerated,” Gabbard said in a statement. “Unfortunately, such leaks have become commonplace with no investigation or accountability. That ends now. We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the Intelligence Community and will hold them accountable.”
In a series of posts on X, Gabbard listed what she said were recent examples of unauthorized leaks from sources in the intelligence community. She referred to news reports — on topics including Israel, Iran and the U.S.-Russia relationship — by HuffPost, The Washington Post, NBC News and The Record news site. But she did not specify precisely which stories she believes were based on leaks or when they were published or broadcast.
“Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such,” Gabbard wrote.
During President Donald Trump’s first term, his administration referred more media leaks for criminal investigation each year than in any of the previous 15 years, according to records released in 2021 by the Justice Department to the independent watchdog group, Project on Government Oversight, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The Trump administration also sought to obtain communications records of reporters from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, as part of leak investigation efforts in Trump’s first presidential term.
When she took over as the top-ranking intelligence official last month, Gabbard said she planned to restore trust in the intelligence agencies, arguing that the spy services had been misused as political weapons against Trump.
Gabbard’s statement on investigating leaks comes after senators grilled her at her confirmation hearing over her 2020 comments praising Edward Snowden, who leaked a vast trove of secrets about the National Security Agency’s electronic eavesdropping operations.
U.S. prosecutors charged Snowden with espionage. Snowden fled to Russia, where authorities have refused to extradite him.
Gabbard had praised Snowden as a courageous whistleblower for exposing extensive eavesdropping by U.S. spy agencies and suggested he should be pardoned. But at her Senate confirmation hearing in January, Gabbard revised her stance, saying she would not seek a pardon for Snowden and that he “broke the law.” However, she sidestepped questions as to whether she believed he was a traitor.
Apart from probing leaks, Gabbard said Friday she was also launching an investigation into any misconduct or unprofessional behavior on internal chat rooms within intelligence agencies.
Last month, Gabbard fired more than 100 intelligence officers from 15 agencies, saying they used an internal government chat platform for discussions that included topics like polyamory, gender transition surgery and politics.
She said that the fired officers’ conduct represented “an egregious violation of trust” and violated “basic rules and standards around professionalism.”
