Trump defends Tulsi Gabbard FBI raid presence at Fulton County election office
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President Donald Trump addressed the recent controversy surrounding the FBI’s search of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard at the Fulton County Election Center and Operations Center in Georgia.
Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Trump said, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi, “He got a lot of backlash for going in two days ago at Pam’s insistence. He went in and looked at the votes… because that’s what Pam was asking him to do.”
The president slammed critics who said Gabbard’s presence during the FBI search was inappropriate and outside her job description.
GEORGIA’S FULTON COUNTY FILES ACTION REQUESTING THE RETURN OF 2020 ELECTION MATERIALS SEIZED BY THE FBI
President Donald Trump speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, February 5, 2026, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)
Trump had previously spoken about the controversy at the premiere of First Lady Melania Trump’s film “MELANIA” at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C. He defended Gabbard and said she was “working hard to keep the election safe.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. and in a letter to House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, Gabbard said Trump “specifically directed” her to be present at the raid. The letter was written in response to a letter Warner and Himes sent in late January in which they requested that Gabbard provide them with information about why she was present at the FBI search.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard enters the Fulton County Election Center and Operations Center as the FBI picks up Fulton County Election 2020 votes in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Mike Stewart/AP Photo)
KASH PATEL CONFIRMED THE FULTON COUNTY ELECTION CENTER RAID WAS A ‘PROBABLE CAUSE’ BY THE FBI
In the letter, Gabbard said her “presence was requested by the President and conducted under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence (CI), foreign and other malicious influences, and cybersecurity.”
“The FBI’s Intelligence/Counterintelligence divisions are one of the 18 elements I oversee,” he said.
Additionally, Gabbard said in her letter that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)’s Office of General Counsel determined that her actions were “within my lawful authority.”
Gabbard announced in April 2025 that the ODNI was investigating electronic voting systems.
Ballots will arrive at the Fulton County Election Center and Operations Center in Fairburn, GA on election night, November 5, 2024. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
On Jan. 28, the FBI searched records related to the 2020 election at Fulton County’s main election facility in Union City, near Atlanta. County officials later filed a petition demanding the return of the 2020 election ballots and other documents seized during the search.
The motion, which remains sealed, asks the federal court to mandate the return of approximately 656 boxes of original 2020 election materials.
The warrant issued to the county includes a list of items agents are looking for related to the 2020 general election: all ballots, tabulation tapes from scanners that tally votes, electronic ballot images created when ballots are counted and later recounted, and all voter lists.
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Trump has long insisted that the 2020 elections, which he lost to former President Joe Biden, were not conducted fairly.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
