Gabbard posts declassification
DNI Tulsi Gabbard posted that she declassified documents she says expose the intelligence community’s false narrative used in Trump’s 2019 impeachment, and the release is driving political reaction on social platforms. (x.com)
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released declassified 2019 testimony on April 13 and said it shows the Trump impeachment was built on a “manufactured” whistleblower narrative. (dni.gov) The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the release includes previously secret material about former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson’s handling of the complaint tied to President Donald Trump’s July 25, 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford said his panel received the declassified transcripts on April 10 and published two 2019 Atkinson hearings on April 13. (dni.gov) (intelligence.house.gov) Gabbard said Atkinson relied on secondhand accounts, not firsthand witnesses to the Trump-Zelensky call, and exceeded his role by pushing the complaint to Congress and law enforcement. The House committee said the two transcripts cover Atkinson’s September 19, 2019 and October 4, 2019 testimony. (dni.gov) (intelligence.house.gov) The documents reopen a fight over the first Trump impeachment, which began after the whistleblower complaint and ended with the House impeaching Trump on December 18, 2019. Congress.gov says the two articles were abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and the Senate acquitted Trump on February 5, 2020. (congress.gov) (govtrack.us) The underlying event was Trump’s July 25, 2019 call with Zelensky, memorialized in a White House memorandum released on September 25, 2019. That memo said Trump asked Zelensky to “do us a favor though” and raised former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. (trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov) Atkinson’s role in 2019 was to decide whether the complaint was an “urgent concern” that “appeared credible” under the inspector general process. A contemporaneous letter said he received the complaint on August 12, 2019 and made that determination by August 26. (usnews.com) Gabbard’s account is not the only one on the record. An Associated Press review published in July 2025 said other declassified material she cited in a separate Trump-Russia dispute did not support her broader claim of an anti-Trump intelligence conspiracy, and noted multiple investigations had still found Russian interference in 2016. (boston.com) Crawford said the new release lets “the American people make their own determinations” about Atkinson’s testimony. That is where this episode stands now: a fresh declassification, an old impeachment record, and a new round of partisan argument over what the 2019 evidence actually showed. (intelligence.house.gov)
