Trump offers revised account of Tulsi Gabbard presence at FBI raid in Georgia | Trump administration
Donald Trump on Thursday offered a new and changed explanation for why his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was present at last week’s FBI raid on a polling station in Georgia, saying it was at the insistence of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“He got a lot of backlash for coming in two days ago at Pam’s insistence,” the US president said at the National Prayer Breakfast, a high-profile event attended by political and religious leaders. “He walked in and looked at the ballots that were being checked from Georgia.”
The remarks contradicted Trump’s claim a day earlier that he did not know why Gabbard participated in the FBI raid and differed from his statement to lawmakers that he had traveled to Fulton County at Trump’s express instructions.
The changing statements have intensified scrutiny of the unusual role Gabbard played in the operation. As director of national intelligence, he has no local law enforcement authority, making his presence in an FBI raid unusual.
Trump’s statement at the prayer breakfast marked a departure from his statements the day before. Interview with NBC News on Wednesday. “I don’t know,” Trump said when asked why Gabbard was there, then suggested, without providing any evidence, that China was interfering in the 2020 election.
That statement also contradicted a letter Gabbard sent to senior lawmakers in the House and Senate on Wednesday, in which she said she participated in the raid at Trump’s direction and was only there briefly.
“My presence was requested by the president and conducted under my broad legal authority to coordinate, integrate and analyze intelligence related to election security,” Gabbard wrote.
The Guardian previously reported that Gabbard was conducting her own review of the 2020 election through her office, with Trump’s approval (separate from the justice department investigation), and that she was sent to observe the raid as part of that effort.
The scrutiny comes as Trump refocused on the 2020 election nearly six years after his loss to Joe Biden. Gabbard has been briefing Trump and senior advisers every few weeks for months, two administration officials familiar with the matter said.
Two investigations into the 2020 election by Gabbard and the justice department underscore its importance to Trump, and sending Gabbard on the raid showed interest in allegations of voting machine manipulation that Trump has cited as evidence the election was stolen.
