2:03Tulsi Gabbard inside a vehicle loaded with boxes outside the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant there in relation to the 2020 election in Union City, Georgia, January 28, 2026.Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has now become a central figure in President Donald Trump's demands for a criminal probe into his false claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
And congressional Democrats are demanding answers about why the president's spy chief — who normally deals with foreign intelligence threats — is involved.
Gabbard has taken a leading role in efforts to investigate voting records from Fulton County, Georgia, a swing state that went blue in 2020 and helped secure Joe Biden's victory.
Tulsi Gabbard inside a vehicle loaded with boxes outside the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant there in relation to the 2020 election in Union City, Georgia, January 28, 2026.Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters
She was seen on Wednesday at the county's Elections Hub and Operations Center as the FBI conducted a search warrant and seized voting records, but she did not explain her presence in any statements.
When asked about what she was doing at the elections office, Trump told reporters Thursday night that she was "working very hard on trying to keep the election safe."
"You got a signed judge's order in Georgia, and you see some interesting things happening. They've been trying to get there for a long time," the president said.
Last week, Trump warned there would be prosecutions related to the 2020 election.
As Georgia election officials, some Democrats and others decry the investigation and maintain that the 2020 election was fair and accurate, Gabbard's office contends she is acting within her authorities to protect the U.S. election system against manipulation by foreign countries or entities, without providing specific evidence.
The FBI's action comes after Trump has repeatedly made baseless claims that there was voter fraud in the 2020 election, specifically in Georgia, that contributed to his election loss to Biden.
The FBI confirmed there is court authorized activity at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Jan. 28, 2026.WSB
Georgia officials audited and certified the results following the election, and numerous lawsuits challenging the election results in the state were rejected by the courts.
"Every audit, every recount, every court ruling has confirmed what we the people of Fulton County already knew: Our elections were fair and accurate and every legal vote was counted," Robb Pitts, the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, said at a press briefing Thursday.
Even though he won the 2024 election, including Georgia, Trump has still pushed the false claims about the 2020 election and vowed to prosecute and investigate his claims.
Gabbard has not publicly spoken about the investigation as of Friday morning.
She, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were scheduled to speak at the National Association of Secretaries of States Winter Conference in Washington Friday afternoon but their appearance was cancelled minutes before it started.
The NASS said Gabbard had "scheduling conflicts."
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told ABC News that she would have wanted to ask the officials, "how they plan to protect local and state election officials from the threats that will follow these baseless accusations and sham investigations,” when the only impact of them would be an increase in threats to election officials.
Alexa Henning, DNI’s deputy chief of staff, claimed in an X post Friday morning that "Intelligence has found that foreign actors are developing more and more sophisticated cyber capabilities that target critical infrastructure, which reinforces the need for the @ODNIgov to ensure that these efforts do not impact the election process."
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Friday defended Gabbard's presence at the Georgia search and her role in the probe, contending "that shouldn’t surprise anybody."
"We are investigating issues around elections to make sure that we do have completely fair and appropriate elections should not be surprising, but I can’t comment on any criminal investigations," he said at a news conference.
ODNI Press Secretary Olivia Coleman told ABC News Thursday that Gabbard considers election security "essential" to national security and is acting within her authorities, alongside interagency partners, to safeguard election infrastructure.
"As DNI, she has a vital role in identifying vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure and protecting against exploitation."
Gabbard has made similar arguments publicly.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard enters the Fulton County Election HUB as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta.Mike Stewart/AP
At a Cabinet meeting in April, Gabbard said she had a team focused on election integrity.
"We have evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time and vulnerable to exploitation, to manipulate the results of the votes being cast, which further drives forward your mandate to bring about paper ballots across the country so that voters can have faith in the integrity of our elections," Gabbard alleged at the meeting without providing details.
A few months later, in July, Gabbard again framed the issue as central to public trust during an appearance on "Fox & Friends."
"When we look at the future of our country as a democratic republic, and the American people's ability to have faith that when they go and cast a vote at the ballot box, that the will of the people will be respected by those in government, whether they be Democrats or Republicans. This is literally what is at stake here," she contended.
An official at DNI said the agency does have authority through federal law and presidential executive orders to investigate any threat to election security.
Tulsi Gabbard outside the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant there in relation to the 2020 election, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter, in Union City, Georgia, January 28, 2026.Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters
However, some lawmakers expressed great skepticism about the DNI's arguments.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, sent a letter to Gabbard Thursday seeking an explanation for her involvement in the Fulton County election probe.
Senate Intelligence Committee Co-Chair Mark Warner questions U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd during his confirmation hearing to be director of the National Security Agency and Cyber on Capitol Hill, January 29, 2026 in Washington.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Warner and Hines asked Gabbard to provide more details about information on why she was at the Fulton County election office Wednesday, more details about her legal authority and more details about her allegations of foreign interference in the 2020 election.
Gabbard hasn't responded to those questions as of Friday.
"Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus — in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees 'fully and currently informed' of relevant national security concerns — or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy," Warner said in a statement Wednesday night.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com