Exclusive: director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard On Monday, she detailed her ongoing election security review in a letter to lawmakers, saying President Trump “specifically directed” her to execute a search warrant in Fulton County, Georgia, last week as part of the investigation.

Gabbard sent a letter to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. The letter was also sent to House and Senate leadership, as well as Republican leadership of both committees.

Trump confirms Tulsi Gabbard’s actions at Georgia election center

The letter was in response to a letter sent by Warner and Himes last week in which they asked Gabbard to brief them on why she participated in an FBI raid of an election office in the United States. Fulton County, Georgia last month.

Gabbard announced in April 2025 that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was investigating electronic voting systems to protect the integrity of the election.

In the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, Gabbard said she was “specifically directed” by President Trump to participate in the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at the Fulton County Clerk of Court’s office in Georgia last month, on January 28, 2026.

“For a brief period, I accompanied FBI Deputy Director Bailey and Atlanta Acting Special Agent in Charge Pete Ellis as they observed FBI agents executing a search warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia based on a probable cause investigation,” she wrote.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced the disqualification of the former intelligence official on Tuesday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Gabbard said her presence was at the request of the President and under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence (CI), foreign and other malign influence, and cybersecurity.

“The FBI’s intelligence/counterintelligence division is one of the 18 divisions I oversee,” she said.

Gabbard said that in 12 FBI field offices across the country, including the Atlanta field office, senior FBI officials (assistant directors in charge or special agents in charge) “also serve as domestic representatives to the director of national intelligence.”

“The Domestic DNI Representative Program was established in 2011 under a memorandum of understanding between the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI,” Gabbard explained. “The Domestic DNI Representatives are distributed by region and focus on specific domestic issues of concern or interest, including threats to critical infrastructure.”

Gabbard said she has visited “several” domestic DNI representatives across the country.

“During a visit to the FBI field office in Atlanta, I thanked FBI agents for their professionalism and outstanding work and facilitated a brief call with the president to personally thank the agents for their work,” Gabbard said. “He asked no questions and no instructions were issued by him or me.”

FBI agents search election center in Fulton County, Georgia

Gabbard stressed that the Office of General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence “found that my actions were consistent and fully consistent with my statutory authority as the Director of National Intelligence.”

Last week, FBI agents were seen searching an election center in Fulton County. GeorgiaStarting in 2020, the location became ground zero for concerns and complaints about voter fraud.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., questions Russ Vought during a 2025 Senate hearing in Washington (not shown). (Kevin Dickey/Getty Images)

The warrant authorizes the seizure of election records, voting rolls and other data related to the 2020 election, according to a copy of the search warrant reviewed by Fox News.

Gabbard went on to address the specific questions originally posed by Warner and Himes, first detailing how election security “becomes a national security issue.”

“Interference in U.S. elections is a threat to our republic and a threat to national security,” she wrote. “The president and his administration are committed to safeguarding the integrity of America’s elections to ensure that no foreign or domestic power undermines the right of the American people to determine our elected leaders.”

Gabbard said President Trump “charged the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to take all appropriate actions within its statutory authority” to “ensure the integrity of our elections, particularly compliance with the execution of the Fulton County search warrant.”

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., talks to reporters after a briefing at the U.S. Capitol. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Gabbard again noted that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has been “actively reviewing intelligence reports and assessments regarding election integrity” since she took office.

“As part of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center’s responsibilities to lead, manage and coordinate counterintelligence matters related to election security, NCSC personnel traveled with me to Fulton County to support this effort,” Gabbard wrote. “They were not present during the execution of the warrant.”

Gabbard went on to emphasize that the director of national intelligence has “broad authority to coordinate, integrate and analyze intelligence related to election security.” Gabbard also added that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is the “lead intelligence component of the Joint Cyber ​​Planning Office” and is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the nation’s strategy for securing critical cyber infrastructure, “including those used for elections.”

Gabbard also told lawmakers that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence “will not irresponsibly share incomplete intelligence assessments regarding foreign or other malign interference in U.S. elections.”

“As I stated publicly on April 10, 2025, there are information and intelligence reports that indicate that the electronic voting systems used in the United States have long been vulnerable to exploitation, which could allow determined actors to manipulate voting results with the intent of changing the outcome of the election,” she wrote.

“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Intelligence Committees continue to collect and evaluate all available intelligence on this threat to ensure the security and integrity of our elections,” she said.

In April 2025, Gabbard said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was investigating the integrity of the election. She said at the time that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence “has evidence that electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers over an extended period of time and could easily be exploited to manipulate voting results.” Gabbard made the remarks at a Cabinet meeting, stressing to the president that the information “furthers your mandate to conduct paper ballots across the country so voters can have confidence in the integrity of our elections.”

At the same time, Gabbard explained in her letter that the process of evaluating intelligence “ensures that the Intelligence Community’s final intelligence product is objective, independent of political considerations, and based on all available sources.”

“Once the intelligence assessment is complete, I will share it with Congress,” she said.

Gabbard said the National Security Act of 1947 specifically states that the law “does not require the president to obtain approval from congressional intelligence committees before initiating major intelligence activities.”

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“In addition, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia issued a sealed search warrant for the Fulton County Clerk of Court’s Office,” she wrote. “Therefore, I have not seen evidence of a warrant or probable cause submitted by the Department of Justice to the court for approval.”

“As a result, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence does not have the ability, authority, or responsibility to brief the committee about a search warrant prior to its execution,” she added.

President Trump last week praised Gabbard for her work protecting U.S. elections

“She worked very hard to secure the election. She did a very good job,” Trump said. “As you know, they’re on the ballot and you get a signed judge’s order in Georgia … and you’re going to see some interesting things happen. They’ve been trying to make this happen for a long time.”

Meanwhile, the Justice Department sued Fulton County in December, seeking to obtain ballots related to the 2020 lawsuit, although the FBI search appears to be unrelated.

Fulton County is fighting the lawsuit and says the Justice Department has yet to make a valid argument for obtaining the records.

Fox News’ Breanna Deppisch contributed to this report.