Tulsi Gabbard Is Running Her Own 2020 Election Inquiry, Separate From DOJ’s

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is reportedly running her own inquiry into President Donald Trump’s debunked claims that his loss in the 2020 presidential race was the result of widespread election fraud in Georgia.

Gabbard’s inquiry, which relies on evidence gathered last week in an FBI raid on an elections facility in Fulton County, Georgia, is separate from another Department of Justice (DOJ) inquiry that is also examining data gathered in that operation. The involvement of the Office of the DNI is unusual, as the head of that agency typically focuses on military intelligence and foreign relations, and has no domestic law enforcement powers.

Nevertheless, Gabbard took part in the FBI raid, citing her “broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security.” She was involved in the raid at Trump’s request, she noted in the same statement.

Gabbard’s involvement may suggest that her inquiry will focus on allegations of foreign nations interfering with the results of Georgia’s election, one of many falsehoods Trump has peddled since losing the state to former President Joe Biden, becoming the first Republican to lose Georgia in a presidential race since 1992.

Georgia investigators have already looked into allegations of foreign interference, determining in 2021 that no such interference altered the outcome of the 2020 election. Several other inquiries into the election, in Georgia and other states, have found no evidence that widespread fraud affected the outcome of the race.

It’s possible that Trump — who has never stopped pushing conspiracy theories about his 2020 electoral loss — plans to use the latest two inquiries into Georgia’s results to upend the 2026 midterms under the guise of protecting “voting integrity.”

Indeed, several legal experts, local officials, and political pundits have expressed concern over the White House confiscating the data.

“I’m not aware of something like this happening ever before,” said University of California at Los Angeles law professor Rick Hasen. “The idea that federal officials would seize ballots in an attempt to prove fraud is especially dangerous in this context when we know there is no fraud because the Georgia 2020 election has been extensively counted, recounted and investigated.”

“You’ve got all the alarm bells going off that this is political as opposed to legitimate,” former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi told The Atlantic.

“This is not legitimate. This is Donald Trump’s obsession with losing the 2020 election,” said Fulton County commissioner Mo Ivory. “This is his way to sow doubt that Fulton County doesn’t hold proper elections.”

In addition to last week’s raid, Trump recently indicated that he wants Republicans in Congress to change election laws across the country, likely to bolster the party’s chances in the 2026 midterms.

According to the U.S. Constitution, the “times, places and manner of holding elections” for federal elections “shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.” Congress is able to establish regulations on elections through federal law, but it’s widely understood that states run their own systems independently of the federal government.

Trump wants Republicans to take the opposite approach, likely fearful that if Democrats win control of Congress, they would use legislative powers to hold his administration to account — potentially by impeaching him.

“The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes,” Trump said in an interview on Monday, continuing to promote false claims of voter fraud.