Whistleblower Complaint Tulsi Gabbard Blocked Is About Jared Kushner
The whistleblower complaint against Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard was related to a conversation between two foreign nationals about Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter who spoke with The Wall Street Journal Thursday. The Journal could not determine where the foreign nationals were from, or what they had discussed about Kushner. But if verified, the allegations against the president’s son-in-law recorded in the conversation would be significant, U.S. officials told the Journal. They added that there was currently no corroborating evidence, but that didn’t mean the allegations lack any merit. Senior Trump administration officials denied the allegations about Kushner but did not offer any more details about the conversation, in order to preserve security around a sensitive surveillance method.Kushner is deeply embedded in the Trump administration’s national security dealings—as a front for a series of pretty blatant real estate and land development grifts. Kushner has previously been under scrutiny for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.In May, a whistleblower accused Gabbard of restricting the distribution of a highly classified intelligence report for political purposes. Typically, an employee is able to share a complaint alleging wrongdoing directly with lawmakers, as long as the director of national intelligence instructs them on how to securely transmit it. But eight months later, and the whistleblower’s complaint was still not transmitted to Congress—and was reportedly locked away in a safe. A heavily redacted version of the report finally arrived in Congress last week. Christopher Fox, the inspector general for the intelligence community, claimed that Gabbard was only informed in December that she needed to provide security guidance in order to transmit the complaint. Former I.C. Inspector General Tamara Johnson had determined that the allegation against Gabbard “did not appear credible,” but Fox noted that that determination had “no legal effect” on the whistleblower’s right to submit the complaint to Congress.In May, Kushner reportedly advised administration officials in negotiations with Arab leaders, ahead of Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East.