Bondi Deflects on Gabbard’s Fulton County Search Role After Trump’s “Insistence” Claim
Attorney General Pam Bondi faced fresh questions Friday about why DNI Tulsi Gabbard was present during an FBI search tied to Fulton County’s 2020 election records in Georgia. The issue matters now because public accounts of who sent Gabbard keep shifting.
The tension centers on whether Gabbard was there for an intelligence-related “election security” purpose or whether her presence risks blurring lines between domestic law enforcement and the intelligence community. Democrats have argued the DNI should not be at a law enforcement operation absent a clear foreign nexus.
The FBI search took place Jan. 28 at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center in Union City, where agents seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election, according to the Associated Press.
Gabbard told lawmakers in a letter that Trump asked her to join the search, but Trump later said she went “at Pam’s insistence,” referring to Bondi, AP and ABC reported. CBS also reported a Gabbard spokesperson said both Trump and Bondi asked her to attend.
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“DNI Gabbard and I are inseparable,” Bondi said Friday, describing constant coordination within the Cabinet, according to AP.
AP reported Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Gabbard was “not part of the grand jury investigation,” but her acknowledged role facilitating communication during the operation could still become a point of scrutiny if charges ever follow.
Bondi said she is not worried Gabbard’s presence could taint the investigation, but questions remain about which version of events is definitive and what formal role, if any, the DNI’s office had around the search.
Lawmakers are expected to keep pressing for documentation and clearer timelines as the legal fight over the seized records continues.
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