White House Offers Shifting Story on Gabbard’s Presence at Georgia Raid
"President Trump said Thursday that Attorney General Pam Bondi had directed Tulsi Gabbard to be present for an operation at an election center. It was the administration’s fourth explanation for her presence.
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent. She reported from Washington.
President Trump said on Thursday that Attorney General Pam Bondi wanted Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, to oversee the F.B.I. seizure and search of voter rolls in Georgia — the fourth time this week the administration has shifted its story on Ms. Gabbard’s extraordinary involvement in a law enforcement operation.
Ms. Gabbard’s involvement in the Georgia raid has drawn scrutiny given that her role overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies does not include on-site involvement in criminal investigative work, and because the results of Georgia’s 2020 election have been the cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s claims that the election was rigged against him.
During remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Mr. Trump said Ms. Gabbard went to Georgia at the direction of Ms. Bondi.
“She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in — at Pam’s insistence — she went in and she looked at votes that want to be checked out,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Gabbard. “Why is she doing it, right Pam, why is she doing it? Because Pam wanted her to do it. And you know why? Because she’s smart.”
Mr. Trump’s explanation for Ms. Gabbard’s involvement in the Georgia raid was different from his remarks on Wednesday, when he was pressed on Ms. Gabbard’s involvement in the raid during an interview with the NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas.
“Why is Tulsi Gabbard there?” Mr. Llamas asked the president.
“I don’t know, but you know, uh, a lot of the cheating comes from — it’s international cheating,” Mr. Trump said. “You have people, they say, from China trying to — let me ask you, do you think China tries to influence our election?”
U.S. officials with knowledge of the Georgia operation told The New York Times this week that Mr. Trump personally ordered Ms. Gabbard to go to Atlanta for the search, and coordinated her actions with Andrew Bailey, one of two deputy F.B.I. directors.
Ms. Gabbard oversaw the F.B.I.’s search of an election center in Fulton County, Ga., during which agents seized truckloads of ballots cast in 2020. During the search, Ms. Gabbard used her cellphone to call Mr. Trump, and he addressed F.B.I. agents who had taken part on speakerphone, asking them questions and praising and thanking them for their work.
On Tuesday, when Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, was asked why Ms. Gabbard was involved in a domestic law enforcement operation, she said the president had tasked Ms. Gabbard with election security as part of her duties.
“Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by the president of the United States to oversee the sanctity and the security of our American elections,” Ms. Leavitt said, adding that the charge was “a coordinated whole of government effort.”
But on Sunday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a television interview that he did not know why Ms. Gabbard was present at the raid, though he indicated that it was not unusual given her role as the nation’s top intelligence official.
“I don’t know why the director was there,” Mr. Blanche said. “She is not part of the grand jury investigation, but she is for sure a key part of our efforts at election integrity and making sure we have free and fair elections. She’s an expert in that space, and it’s a big part of what she and her team look at every day.”
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration."
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