Bondi dismisses concerns over Gabbard’s role in FBI search of Georgia election hub

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday she is not worried that the involvement of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in an FBI search of a Georgia election office could taint the FBI’s investigation.

Her comments came a day after President Donald Trump offered a new explanation for why Gabbard was at the main elections hub in Georgia’s most populous county last week, saying Bondi had requested her presence.

Gabbard told lawmakers in a letter this week that Trump had asked her to join the search, where agents seized hundreds of boxes containing ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia. But speaking Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump asserted that Gabbard “went in at Pam’s insistence.”

At an unrelated press conference Friday, Bondi said Gabbard’s presence in Georgia reflects government collaboration.

“DNI Gabbard and I are inseparable. We are constantly together, as are the people behind us,” Bondi said, with FBI Director Kash Patel standing nearby. “We constantly talk, we collaborate as a Cabinet. We’re all extremely close. Know what each other, what we’re doing at all times, pretty much to keep not only our country safe, but our world safe.”

Gabbard’s involvement in the case, which is tied to Trump’s disproven conspiracy theories about his 2020 loss, has raised concerns from Democratic lawmakers about the blurring of lines between intelligence work, which typically focuses on foreign threats, and domestic law enforcement operations, like the FBI search.

Democrats also fear her involvement may be laying the groundwork for the federal government to assert that the 2020 race that Trump lost was somehow tainted by foreign meddling or to cast doubt on the integrity of future elections.

In the event that criminal charges are brought, her presence — and her assertion that her attendance was requested by Trump as well as her acknowledged role in facilitating a call between FBI agents and the president — could open the door to defense arguments that the investigation was inherently politically motivated.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a television interview days after the FBI search that he did not know why Gabbard was there and said she was “not part of the grand jury investigation.” But he also has defended her as an important player in the administration’s efforts to uphold election integrity.

Gabbard said in her letter to lawmakers that she accompanied senior FBI officials “under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security.”

Gabbard’s office declined to answer questions about the changing explanations for her involvement and pointed to Bondi’s comments. Gabbard, a former congresswoman from Hawaii, ran for president as a Democrat and then endorsed Joe Biden, the ultimate winner in 2020, before switching to the Republicans and joining Trump’s second administration.

Her office also declined to respond when asked who Gabbard believes won in 2020, or if she now believes Trump’s lies about the election.

Democrats on congressional intelligence committees have questioned Gabbard’s role in the investigation and said that if she has a legitimate reason for joining the FBI, she is obligated to inform Congress.

“The intelligence community operates outside the borders of the US for good reason, and the Director of National Intelligence has no business at a law enforcement operation unless there is a legitimate foreign nexus, of which we’ve seen no indication,” Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Himes and his Senate counterpart, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, said they will continue to push for answers about Gabbard’s involvement in the investigation and what it might mean for upcoming elections.