Whistleblower complaint centers on sharing of classified intelligence and reporting of a potential crime, watchdog says
By Natasha Bertrand, CNN
(CNN) — A complaint filed last year by a US intelligence community whistleblower that is now being scrutinized by lawmakers includes claims that the distribution of a highly classified intelligence report had been “restricted for political purposes” and that an intelligence agency lawyer had failed to report a potential crime to the Justice Department, a government watchdog told lawmakers earlier this week.
The Intelligence Community Inspector General provided the broad outline in a Monday letter to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees of the whistleblower complaint it received in May 2025 concerning Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
The letter from Christopher Fox was released by Gabbard’s office late Tuesday. Fox did not detail the substance of the intelligence report or the alleged crime referenced by the whistleblower. The intelligence report at issue is the “most sensitive to date” that has ever been received by the IC inspector general as part of an “urgent concern” complaint, Fox wrote, and would ordinarily only be briefed verbally to the Gang of 8 composed of the top Democrats and Republicans in each chamber of congress and the leaders of the intelligence committees.
The existence of the complaint was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and Gang of 8 lawmakers were given access to the complaint itself on Tuesday.
Upon reviewing the complaint last June, Fox’s predecessor Tamara Johnson determined that it would meet the “urgent concern” threshold if it were true, a determination meaning that the Gang of 8 would need to be briefed, Fox wrote. But Johnson was unable to determine the credibility of the claims at the time, according to the letter.
The whistleblower then elected to share their complaint directly with the congressional intelligence committees, an option protected under federal law. Before sharing a complaint, whistleblowers are required to get security guidance from ODNI to transmit classified complaints securely.
On June 9, 2025, Johnson issued a memo after receiving new evidence finding that while the first allegation by the whistleblower — that a report was withheld for political reasons — did not appear credible, she was unable to assess the credibility of the second allegation, that the IC had failed to report a crime to Department of Justice. The whistleblower still sought to transmit the complaint to lawmakers and the IG kept inquiring “at least monthly” to ODNI since June about how to do so securely, the letter says.
When he was confirmed in October, Fox says he was told by ODNI’s general counsel that “complexity in the classification” of the complaint had contributed to the delay in providing the whistleblower with the necessary security guidance to send it to Congress. Fox says he continued to push for the guidance, and that when he met with Gabbard in December she said she had been unaware of the issue “and committed to providing the guidance as soon as practicable.”
The whistleblower’s lawyer told CNN on Tuesday night that he has yet to receive security guidance on sharing the complaint with the broader intelligence committees, beyond just the Gang of 8.
“They’re also flagging executive privilege concerns, and for me, executive privilege concerns means that this somehow involves the White House,” Andrew Bakaj said.
The day after the Monday Wall Street Journal report on the whistleblower report, the Gang of 8 was given access to a copy of the complaint.
Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on House intelligence committee, told CNN after seeing the complaint that he had “ongoing concerns about both the contents and the delay in it being reported to Congress. I will continue to pursue this matter to ensure that proper oversight is conducted.”
CNN’s Zachary Cohen contributed to this report
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