Gabbard rejects claims she withheld whistleblower complaint from Congress

(This Feb 7 story has ⁠been repeated with ⁠no changes ‍to the text)

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Saturday disputed claims by lawmakers that she sought to block Congress from ‍accessing a whistleblower complaint, saying she took "immediate action" once notified of the ​need to provide security guidance for its release.

A top-secret complaint filed with the intelligence community's inspector general last ​May by an anonymous government official alleged that the U.S. spy chief's office sought to prevent the routine dissemination of certain classified intelligence for political reasons.

Gabbard was appointed to her post by Republican President ​Donald Trump last year.

A November letter from Andrew Bakaj, the whistleblower's lawyer, to Gabbard's office, which was also shared with the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence committees, ​alleged that Gabbard had hindered the dissemination of the May complaint to lawmakers by failing to provide necessary security guidance ‌on how to handle it.

Democrats such as Senator Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, have said that Gabbard's agency, ​the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, was ⁠required under law to relay the May complaint to Congress within 21 days rather than waiting until February.

In a social media post on ‌Saturday, Gabbard accused Democrats of spreading a "blatant lie."

Successive inspectors general spanning the presidencies of Trump and his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden did not find the complaint to be credible, Gabbard wrote on X. The ‌21-day requirement "only applies when a complaint is determined by the Inspector General to be both urgent AND apparently ‌credible," Gabbard wrote.

Reuters could not verify the contents of the original complaint. The Guardian newspaper and the New York Times have reported that it was related to the handling of an intelligence intercept related ‍to someone close to Trump.

Gabbard also wrote that she previously had not been informed by the inspector generals that the whistleblower had "chosen ⁠to send the complaint to Congress, which would require me to issue security instructions." Gabbard wrote that once made aware of the need to provide security guidance to share the complaint with lawmakers on December 4, she took "immediate action" to do so.

(Reporting by Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Will Dunham)

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