A U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint filed last year, according to the official’s lawyer and Gabbard’s office. The attorney for the intelligence official, Andrew Bakaj, said Monday that the compla int was filed in May with the intelligence community’s inspector general and that in June, the whistleblower asked that it be shared with lawmakers. He accused Gabbard of trying to hide the complaint from Congress. “After nearly eight months of taking illegal actions to protect herself, the time has come for Tulsi Gabbard to comply with the law and fully release the disclosure to Congress,” Bakaj said in a statement released by Whistle Blower Aid, a nonprofit group that represents government and private sector employees seeking to expose wrongdoing. “The Inspector General’s independence and neutrality is non-existent when the director of national intelligence illegally inserts herself into the process,” he said. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the whistleblower complaint. The Journal reported that Gabbard’s office had not shared the whistleblower complaint because it was trying to work out security guidance to safeguard the information in it. The substance of the complaint has not been divulged by administration officials or the whistleblower’s lawyer. The whistleblower’s lawyer, Bakaj, told NBC News he has not seen the complaint. The Office of the Director for National Intelligence did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment. Trump administration Jan 29 Tulsi Gabbard under scrutiny for showing up at FBI raid of Georgia election hub Elections 4 hours ago Trump says Republicans should ‘nationalize' elections In a social media post, Gabbard’s press secretary, Oliva Coleman, acknowledged a whistleblower complaint had been filed but rejected the accusation that Gabbard had tried to stonewall Congress. Coleman said Gabbard had shared the complaint, which she called “baseless,” with intelligence committees in Congress. “There was absolutely NO wrongdoing by DNI Gabbard,” she wrote on X. Coleman also said a previous inspector general concluded that the whistleblower’s allegations did not appear credible. Coleman alleged that the whistleblower was “a politically motivated individual.” “Director Gabbard has always and will continue to support Whistleblower’s and their right, under the law, to submit complaints to Congress, even if they are completely baseless like this one,” she wrote. When asked about the case, the White House referred to the social media post by Gabbard’s press secretary. Lawmakers on congressional intelligence committees did not learn of the whistleblower’s complaint until November, after the intelligence official’s lawyer wrote Gabbard asking why the complaint had not been passed on to Congress as required, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. Former intelligence officials say it’s highly unusual for a government agency to take several months to transmit a whistleblower complaint to Congress, and that spy agencies usually are able to resolve security concerns in a matter of days or weeks. An ODNI official said there is no legal requirement for how quickly the director of national intelligence must share security guidance related to a whistleblower’s complaint to an inspector general. Gabbard did not learn of her responsibility to outline security guidance for sending the complaint to Congress until October, when a newly appointed inspector general took office, the ODNI official said. “After learning of her responsibility to produce security guidance, DNI Gabbard took immediate action to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and took every step within her power to fulfill her responsibility to provide security guidance for transmittal to Congress,” the ODNI official said. In his statement, the whistleblower’s lawyer, Bakaj, accused Gabbard of jeopardizing the ability of Congress “to exercise its legally mandated oversight of the US Intelligence Community, including agency covert operations.” The vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, expected Gabbard to abide by her legal obligations to protect the rights of government whistleblowers, his spokesperson said. “During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director Gabbard pledged under oath to comply with the law by protecting whistleblowers, safeguarding their anonymity, and ensuring timely, direct access to Congress,” the spokesperson said. “We expect her to honor those commitments and comply with both the letter and the spirit of the law.” The whistleblower complaint contains elements that are described as “attorney-client privileged,” and could be considered part of “executive privilege,” according to the Wall Street Journal report. That would suggest that the material possibly falls under the president’s power to withhold confidential conversations from Congress or the courts.  ...read more read less