Tulsi Gabbard Gives the Deep State the Boot
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard referred two intelligence officials to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution over their alleged leaks of classified information Wednesday.
The two officials reportedly leaked top-secret military information to The Washington Post and The New York Times, purportedly to hamper President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and stir up public opinion for their own partisan political gain.
“Politicization of our intelligence and leaking classified information puts our nation’s security at risk and must end,” Gabbard told Fox News, noting that a third criminal referral is on its way. “Those who leak classified information will be found and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
This isn’t the first time Gabbard has cracked down on intelligence community leakers. In March, she announced her department’s intention to aggressively pursue such activity and gave examples of how leakers recently shared classified info ranging from American intel on Israel and Iran to the U.S.’s relationship with Russia with left-wing media allies such as The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and NBC.
At the time, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton (R) praised Gabbard for working to end “the weaponization of the intelligence community.”
Yet the weaponization of the intelligence community against the Trump administration is far from over. Gabbard’s recent criminal referrals for two intelligence leakers come as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces a slew of coordinated media attacks meant to slander his reputation and give him the boot at the Pentagon — all thanks to partisan intel officials leaking to their allies in the press. For example, The New York Times recently tried to resurrect “Signal-gate” by alleging Hegseth sent classified info via Signal to his wife and other personal contacts. NPR joined the psyop, by reporting that an unnamed “U.S. official” told the outlet the Trump administration is now looking for a new Defense secretary (the White House immediately repudiated the claim). Notably, both “scoops” rely entirely on anonymous sources for their articles (NPR’s “story” relies on only one anonymous source).
These anonymous sources are the partisan operatives within the intelligence community Gabbard hopes to root out. Because they are diametrically opposed to Hegseth and the threat he poses to both the military industrial complex and pointless foreign conflicts, as well as the PC-ification of the military, they regularly leak to their ideologically-aligned allies in the press and jeopardize the integrity and cohesion of Trump’s intelligence agencies.
“Leaking is always designed to damage a specific target and promote a narrative,” Chris Gacek, senior fellow for Regulatory Affairs at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “The Deep State cannot be given free shots on goal. It appears Gabbard realizes this, and she is taking action.”
The Trump administration has learned its lesson from its first term, where leaks abounded and intelligence officials and federal employees — both overwhelmingly Democratic Party-affiliated — tried thwarting President Trump’s agenda at every turn, many times through coordinated media attacks made possible by anonymous leakers.
But this time around, it’s different. “We are aggressively investigating other leaks and will pursue further criminal referrals as warranted,” a Gabbard official told Fox News. “Any intelligence community bureaucrat who is considering leaking to the media should take this as a warning.”
AUTHOR
Victoria Marshall
Victoria Marshall is a news reporter for FRC’s Washington Watch and is a contributor to The Washington Stand.
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