Gabbard says declassified testimony exposes plot behind Trump impeachment

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released newly declassified testimony that she said shows a “coordinated effort” by the intelligence community to “manufacture a conspiracy” used as the basis for the first impeachment of President Donald Trump.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Monday released two declassified transcripts of closed-door House Intelligence Committee hearings that Gabbard’s office said show that former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson presented as credible a whistleblower complaint based on second-hand information from an individual who had previously worked with then-Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine. Gabbard’s office argued that, based on this and other testimony, Atkinson’s actions “constitute a weapon[d] the denunciation process and overcoming[ed] its statutory jurisdiction.

Atkinson’s investigation helped spark Trump’s first impeachment by advancing what he considers a “credible” whistleblower complaint regarding a July 2019 phone call between the president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson “failed to follow standard IG procedures and relied on politicized and fabricated narratives” during his investigation into whistleblower allegations that ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment in 2019, Gabbard’s office said Monday.

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Tuesday the revocation of the accreditations of former intelligence officials. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Gabbard, citing previously classified Atkinson testimony in the House, said the former inspector general “aggressively moved forward” with her preliminary investigation while relying on second-hand testimony and what she described as politicized witnesses. Gabbard’s office also accused Atkinson “of never conducting a formal or comprehensive investigation.”

“In his own words, IC IG Atkinson acknowledges that his findings were based on a ‘preliminary investigation,’ noting that ‘I have not conducted an investigation to determine whether they actually occurred…that all of the alleged actions actually occurred,'” according to Gabbard’s statement.

Under federal law, the inspector general’s preliminary role is to determine whether a whistleblower’s complaint “appears credible,” rather than fully investigating or substantiating the underlying allegations. Atkinson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The testimony reveals that Atkinson knew that the primary whistleblower, whose identity has still not been officially disclosed, was a “registered Democrat” and had alerted the staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence before submitting his “Disclosure of Urgent Concern” form, Gabbard’s office said.

The whistleblower also admitted to “working closely with Vice President Biden” and “traveling with Biden to Ukraine and participating in conversations during which LUTSENKO’s corruption was discussed,” according to the DNI statement. Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine’s prosecutor general from 2016 to 2019, was the official who inherited and closed the Burisma investigation and was later courted by Hunter Biden-linked lobbyists seeking to facilitate ties between the Ukrainian government and Democratic political circles, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Gabbard also accused Atkinson of ignoring any bias, pointing to testimony in which he said: “I also want to make it clear that I never considered the whistleblower to be politically biased.”

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The office said that on the initial form submitted by the whistleblower, he admitted, “I have no direct knowledge of any private comments or communications” from Trump. Notably, whistleblower laws do not require a whistleblower to provide first-hand information, according to the National Whistleblower Center.

Gabbard’s office said one of the “key” witnesses Atkinson relied on to corroborate the whistleblower report during his preliminary investigation was also a co-author of the intelligence community’s controversial 2017 assessment of Russian collusion that Gabbard said was initiated at the direction of former President Barack Obama.

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Gabbard, herself a former Democrat, accused Atkinson of “failing to live up to her responsibility to the American people by putting political motivations ahead of the truth.”

From left, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Intelligence Agency Director James Adams, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Acting Commander of U.S. Cyber ​​Command William Hartman and CIA Director John Ratcliffe sit before the Senate Intelligence Committee to examine global threats on Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (José Luis Magana/AP)

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“Deep state actors within the intelligence community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly elected President of the United States,” Gabbard said. “And this, along with the politicization of the whistleblowing process by a former CIA employee who worked hand-in-hand with Democrats in Congress, are glaring examples of the deep state’s playbook on how to weaponize the intelligence community.”

She added that “denouncing these tactics and showing how they undermine the fabric of our democratic republic advances the essential cause of transparency and accountability and will help prevent future abuses of power.”

Democratic lawmakers largely dismissed Gabbard’s revelations, calling the declassification an attempt by the DNI to curry favor with Trump.

“This is a small thing — just another sad attempt by Tulsi Gabbard to curry favor with Donald Trump,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Politico’s NatSec Daily newsletter.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, also criticized X’s declassification.

“Anyone can read the transcript of Trump’s phone call to extract dirt on Biden from President Zelenskyy. It was an impeachable offense, and no amount of dirt-kicking and sycophancy can obscure it,” Himes wrote. “If Joe Biden had made that call, the Republicans would have burned the place down.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committee for additional comment.