A whistleblower complaint raised against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard last year revolves around President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to reports.
The highly-classified complaint, submitted in May 2025, alleged that the National Security Agency failed to publish an intelligence report about a phone conversation, intercepted by a foreign spy service, between two overseas intelligence officials concerning Iran in which a person linked to Trump was under discussion.
Instead, the complaint alleged, Gabbard presented a paper copy to the president’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, and told the NSA to supply further details to her office, rather than making it more widely available within the intelligence community as would have been expected.
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal now report that the Trump associate who was mentioned in the call was Kushner.
His name was redacted in the NSA’s original report – as is customary in a practise known as “masking”.
But it has now emerged that the participants on the call were referencing Ivanka Trump’s husband and suggesting he was the person to speak to if they hoped to influence the direction of future peace talks in their favor, the Times reports.
While the anonymous whistleblower clearly felt the invocation of Kushner was significant – hence their decision to file the complaint against Gabbard, accusing her of suppressing it on political grounds – others within the intelligence world have dismissed the affair as mere “gossip,” according to the Times.
The Independent has reached out to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for comment.
The WSJ first reported the existence of the complaint against Gabbard last week. Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Christopher Fox presented a heavily-redacted version to the so-called Gang of Eight in a secure room in Congress on a “read-and-return” basis, meaning those in attendance were not permitted to take copies or make notes.
The precise details of the complaint, the investigation into it, and the underlying intelligence all remain classified.
Gabbard and her allies have since gone on the offensive on social media, with the director herself attacking Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, after he criticised her handling of the matter.
“Warner and his friends in the Propaganda Media have repeatedly lied to the American people that I or the ODNI ‘hid’ a whistleblower complaint in a safe for eight months,” Gabbard wrote on X (Twitter). “This is a blatant lie.”
She went on to issue a lengthy rebuttal, denying even having seen the complaint until two weeks prior to the WSJ’s report and laying out a “detailed chronology of the situation.”
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the same committee, defended her on X on February 5 by saying: “I have reviewed this ‘whistleblower’ complaint and the inspector general handling of it.
“I agree with both inspectors general who have evaluated the matter: the complaint is not credible and the inspectors general and the DNI took the necessary steps to ensure the material has handled and transmitted appropriately in accordance with law.
“To be frank, it seems like just another effort by the president’s critics in and out of government to undermine policies that they don’t like; it’s definitely not credible allegations of waste, fraud, or abuse.”
A luxury real estate impresario like his father-in-law, Kushner has no formal role in the second Trump administration but was involved in Middle East peace talks at the time the conversation was held and continues to be. He also has numerous business interests in the regions.
In response to the latest development, the campaign group Citizens for Ethics decried Kushner’s ongoing role in U.S. diplomatic missions overseas, complaining about his reportedly recently joining Trump and members of his cabinet in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Jared Kushner is a private citizen who has billions in investments from foreign governments,” it wrote. “He has no formal role in the Trump administration and is not subject to any ethics rules. So WHY is he meeting with Israel’s president alongside Pres. Trump and two cabinet secretaries?”
