Intercept-driven whistleblower complaint puts DNI Gabbard, Kushner in congressional crosshairs

A highly classified whistleblower complaint involving Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard centers on a foreign-intelligence intercept collected last spring, according to US officials familiar with the matter, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The intercepted conversation involved two foreign nationals discussing Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, though officials said it was not possible to determine the speakers’ country or precisely what was said about Kushner. The connection to Kushner adds detail to an episode that became politically charged after the complaint was reportedly held within Gabbard’s agency for roughly eight months, kept secured, and only later provided to Congress in heavily redacted form.

Senior Trump administration officials said claims about Kushner were demonstrably false, but they declined to discuss the underlying intercept in detail, arguing that specifics could reveal sensitive surveillance methods. Other officials familiar with the conversation described the allegations as potentially significant if verified

The *Journal *has reported that the complaint stemmed from an NSA-collected foreign-intelligence conversation that included discussion of a Trump confidant and touched, at least in part, on Iran-related issues.