Warner calls Gabbard to testify on Georgia election attack, Trump FBI phone call

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, on Tuesday called on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to testify in person before the Senate Intelligence Committee about her participation in the FBI’s raid on a Georgia election office last week.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Warner said he was particularly concerned that Gabbard mediated a phone call between FBI agents and President Donald Trump after the search warrant was executed.

“Let me be clear: It is inappropriate for a sitting president to become personally involved in a criminal investigation related to the election he lost,” Warner told reporters at the Capitol.

The senator also expressed alarm at President Trump’s recent suggestion that Republicans should “hijack” and “nationalize” elections.

“This statement alone makes it clear that this threat to election security, a fundamental premise of our democracy, is on the horizon from 2026 to 2028.”

Warner’s comments add to concerns among Democrats that Trump, who has stubbornly refused to admit defeat in the 2020 election and continues to falsely claim he won the race, may seek to interfere in future midterm elections.

Even though they are in the minority, Senate Democrats have the power to compel people to testify.

Warner accused Gabbard’s office of systematically “removing” various guardrails designed to protect the election.

“When you put all this together, it’s clear that what happened in Fulton County is not about looking back, but shaping the outcome of future elections,” he said.

In a letter to Warner and other lawmakers Monday, Gabbard said her attendance at the Fulton County elections office was “at the request” of President Trump, and that she only observed the execution of an FBI search warrant there “for a short period of time.”

A county spokesperson confirmed that federal officials were seeking records related to the 2020 election. “They took 24 pallets, which contained 656 boxes of 2020 election documents,” Fulton County Superior Court Clerk Che Alexander told local station WSB-TV last week.

Gabbard said in her letter that as DNI she has “broad legal authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze information related to election security, including counterintelligence (CI), foreign and other adverse influence, and cybersecurity.”

Asked for comment on the senator’s remarks, ODNI spokeswoman Olivia Colman told CNBC in an email that Gabbard’s letter “details many of the things that Mr. Warner said today.” Coleman did not address Warner’s request for Gabbard to testify.

Gabbard also appeared to broadly confirm a New York Times report that she called Trump during a meeting with FBI agents after the raid and praised their work on speakerphone.

“During my visit to the FBI field office in Atlanta, I appreciated the professionalism and excellent work of the FBI agents and mediated a brief telephone conversation with the President to personally thank the FBI agents for their work,” Gabbard said in the letter.

The Times, citing three people familiar with the meeting, reported that Trump asked the investigators questions, most of which were asked by the squad supervisor who prepared the evidence for the campaign search.

Gabbard’s letter said Trump “did not ask any questions, nor did I provide any instructions” during the call.

She added that the firm’s general counsel “determined that my actions were consistent and well within my statutory authority.”

Warner rejected that defense.

“Broad authority to analyze information is not a license to participate in a bogus investigation,” he said. “And it in no way justifies facilitating direct contact between the front-line FBI agents conducting this investigation and the President of the United States.”

Meanwhile, President Trump called on Republican lawmakers to “pass the vote” in a podcast interview with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino released Monday.

He made the suggestion after repeating a conspiracy theory that non-citizens are being “bred” into the United States to vote illegally. President Trump has linked this repeatedly debunked claim to his administration’s aggressive efforts to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants.

“If we don’t get rid of them, the Republican Party will never win an election again,” Trump told Bongino.

“It’s amazing that the Republicans aren’t getting tougher. They should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting. At least we should take over the voting in many, 15 places,'” Trump said.

“Republicans should nationalize voting,” he continued. “There are states that are so crooked that they’re counting the votes. There are states that I won that show I didn’t win.”

States are primarily responsible for managing their own electoral systems.

Trump added in the interview that “we’ll see something in Georgia where they had access to court orders and ballots.” “Something interesting will come out.”

Asked Tuesday why Gabbard was involved in the operation in Georgia, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said President Trump had tapped her to “oversee the sanctity and security of America’s elections.”

“This is a coordinated, whole-of-government effort to ensure that elections continue to be fair and transparent,” Levitt said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-LA) both on Tuesday defended President Trump’s comments about nationalizing elections.

“What we’re hearing from the president, frankly, is frustration that some blue states are not enforcing these things and making sure they have free and fair elections,” Johnson said.

“I think the president has made it clear what he means by that, which means he supports the SAVE Act,” Thune said, referring to the bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.