Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is blowing the whistle on the first impeachment of President Donald Trump.
In a news release published Monday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a series of broadsides against the inspector general who handled the “whistleblower” report about an August 2019 phone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
And it didn’t let Nancy Pelosi or Adam Schiff off the hook either.
The release set out its terms right from the headline: “Tulsi Gabbard Exposes the Conspiracy Used By Congress To Impeach President Trump.”
Newly-declassified records expose how deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that Congress used to usurp the will of the American people and impeach duly-elected President @realDonaldTrump in 2019.
Today, we reveal the truth 👇… pic.twitter.com/oLXW5nqi2n
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) April 13, 2026
The bulk of the release targeted Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general at the time, who “did not follow standard IG procedures and relied upon politicized, manufactured narratives” in framing his handling of the case.
It added that Atkinson “proceeded to take actions to weaponize the Whistleblower process and exceed his statutory jurisdiction by ignoring Department of Justice guidance and relying on only second-hand testimony to ensure the whistleblower complaint was released to Congress, referred to the FBI, and leaked to the propaganda media.”
Meanwhile, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff — both California Democrats — were waiting in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for an opportunity to attack Trump. Atkinson gave it to them.
“Schiff and Pelosi used this false, second-hand narrative to create media intrigue and ultimately spark the basis to impeach President Trump in December of 2019,” the release contended.
But the release contained more than rhetoric. It included links to declassified documents like Atkinson’s report labeling the “whistleblower” complaint a matter of “urgent concern,” as well as transcripts of Atkinson’s closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on two occasions, Sept. 19, 2019, and Oct. 4, 2019.
Most Americans will remember how zealously Schiff protected the “whistleblower.” His name has never even been officially confirmed, but he’s widely suspected to have been Eric Ciaramella, a CIA analyst with ties to now-former Vice President Joe Biden’s work in Ukraine as well as liberal billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.
Add to that the news release’s allegation that Atkinson relied on the work of a friend of now-disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok, a prime mover of the anti-Trump Russia “collusion” hoax, and the description by Gabbard’s office of the impeachment effort as a “conspiracy” begins to appear dead accurate.
“Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States,” Gabbard said in the news release.
“Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth. And this, along with the politicization of the whistleblower process by a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress, are egregious examples of the deep state playbook on how to weaponize the Intelligence Community,” it added.
“Exposing these tactics and showing how they undermine the fabric of our democratic republic furthers the critical cause of transparency and accountability and will help prevent future abuse of power.”
Trump fired Atkinson as intelligence community inspector general in April 2020. Schiff vowed at the time that the intelligence committee he chaired would review the action.
“The Committee is reviewing the circumstances of Mr. Atkinson’s dismissal, including whether his termination was intended to curb any ongoing investigations or reviews being undertaken by his office,” Schiff wrote to then-acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
Gabbard, who was a Democratic representative from Hawaii in the House during the December 2019 vote on impeachment, voted “present” on both articles of impeachment the House sent to the Senate (where Trump was acquitted in February of 2020).
At the time, according to CNN, she said that she was convinced Trump “was guilty of wrongdoing,” but she could not back impeachment because “removal of a sitting President must not be the culmination of a partisan process, fueled by tribal animosities that have so gravely divided our country.”
Her comments in the news release indicated her opinions about the process might have changed in the years that have passed.
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