A recent raid by the FBI in Georgia has raised eyebrows, as it appears to be putting government power behind Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election. Suspicions grew as one of Trump’s top officials, who has a history of promoting the president’s conspiracy theories, was seen on the ground.

Gabbard’s presence raises legal concerns

The FBI raided a Fulton County, Georgia, election office on Wednesday, executing a warrant to seize materials related to the 2020 election, including ballots, voter rolls, tabulator tapes and more. The raid seems to be related to Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia. Present at the raid was Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The presence of the DNI, who covers external national security threats through agencies such as the CIA, was unusual. Gabbard attending the raid was also improper and raises legal questions, as the DNI is barred from engaging in domestic law enforcement activities. A former national security official told NBC News, “Even if there was some criminal activity in the 2020 election in Georgia — despite repeated investigations that show there was none — it’s still a purely domestic problem — not one involving foreign nations. The director of national intelligence has nothing to do with this.”

Despite accusations of election fraud being outside of the purview of the DNI, The Wall Street Journal reported that White House sources indicated that Gabbard has been engaged for months in investigating Trump’s accusations of fraud in the 2020 election. Publicly, the White House justified Gabbard’s presence at the Georgia raid. “Director Gabbard has a pivotal role in election security and protecting the integrity of our elections against interference, including operations targeting voting systems, databases, & election infrastructure,” a senior administration official said, according to CNN senior national security reporter Zachary Cohen. The administration also indicated that “she has & will continue to take action on President Trump’s directive to secure our elections & work with our interagency partners to do so.”

DNI Tulsi Gabbard was on scene.

Per a senior admin official, this is why:

“Director Gabbard has a pivotal role in election security and protecting the integrity of our elections against interference, including operations targeting voting systems, databases, & election… https://t.co/Y327TcbpjG
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) January 29, 2026

Gabbard has a chance to restore a relationship with Trump by promoting his conspiracy theory

The attention being given to the 2020 election, with the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence engaging in this investigation, demonstrates the extent to which Trump continues to push his false claim that he won the 2020 election in states like Georgia and nationally. In reality, Trump was indicted in Fulton County for attempting to rig the 2020 election in Georgia, including by infamously pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes for Trump — the exact amount he would have needed to win the state. Now that Trump is back in office, he is using the power of the government to engage in investigations that experts say have little evidence or legal justification but serve his political aims. University of California, Los Angeles, law professor Rick Hasen told ProPublica, “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.”

Gabbard’s role in pushing the lie of a stolen election fits into her track record of promoting conspiracy theories for Trump. In 2025, Gabbard was the driving force behind a report with the unsubstantiated title “Declassified Evidence of Obama Administration Conspiracy to Subvert President Trump’s 2016 Victory and Presidency.” The actual report did not demonstrate the claims against Obama. Despite being willing to push Trump’s agenda in the past, Gabbard appeared to have had a falling out with Trump after deviating from the administration’s foreign policy regarding Iran. Gabbard’s current efforts to pursue Trump’s election conspiracy theories may be a move to regain the president’s favor.

If Gabbard is trying to restore her standing with Trump, using her office to support his false claims about the 2020 election may be an effective way to do that. While this move may be politically beneficial for Gabbard, it risks setting a dangerous precedent of improper domestic interference by the director of national intelligence and continues Trump’s use of federal government power to pursue his personal goals.

Tulsi-Gabbard

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