Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the DOJ opening a grand jury investigation into the Trump-Russia collusion narrative is a step toward accountability.
Gabbard joined “The Ingraham Angle” Tuesday for her first interview since Attorney General Pam Bondi directed her staff to act on a criminal referral the DNI chief sent to her office in late July.
“I met with the Department of Justice prosecutors today, and yes, they are committed to leaving no stone unturned as they conduct this grand jury investigation and find the truth,” said Gabbard.
“They have more questions and they’re gonna be really taking a deep dive into this, again, looking everywhere to find the truth and conduct this very serious investigation.”
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Fox News reported on Monday that Bondi directed an unnamed federal prosecutor to start legal proceedings, with plans to present evidence to a grand jury for a potential indictment, according to a letter from Bondi and a source familiar with the investigation.
The announcement comes after the attorney general announced the creation of a “strike force” to look into the evidence Gabbard and her team gathered.
Gabbard alleges that Obama administration officials politicized intelligence and laid the groundwork for a “years-long coup” against President Donald Trump after he won the 2016 election.
She claimed in a post on X that former President Barack Obama and key members of his national security team, including then-CIA Director John Brennan and then-DNI James Clapper, fabricated a narrative about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election to “subvert” Trump’s presidency.
Gabbard told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that, despite the improbability of Obama facing serious charges due to the Supreme Court’s 2024 presidential immunity ruling, she wanted to release the declassified documents to protect the nation’s “integrity.”
“The integrity of our democratic republic depends on the American people knowing the truth about what actually happened and seeking that accountability, bringing about that accountability,” said the former Democratic congresswoman.
“This was not a one-off thing. This wasn’t just, ‘Oh, well, they fudged the lines a little bit.’ They created a lie and propagated that lie in order to try to undermine the person that the American people chose to be our president and commander-in-chief.”
An Obama spokesperson pushed back on Gabbard’s “outrageous” and “bizarre” allegations in a rare statement in July as attempted distractions.
“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio,” the spokesperson said.
A 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, backed by then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., found that Russia did not “hack” election infrastructure, such as changing votes or manipulating voting machines.
It did, however, conclude that the Russian government worked to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions and voting processes.
Rubio, now the Secretary of State, said in a 2020 press release that the committee’s investigation did not find evidence that then-candidate Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government.
Fox News’ David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report