Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released another batch of recently declassified documents on April 13, 2026, that revealed the biased evidence and lack of firsthand accounts that were used by the former intelligence community inspector general to help push forward the 2019 impeachment effort against President Donald Trump. President Trump, responding to the situation, sounded off.
Gabbard revealed that Michael Atkinson, the former IC inspector general, did not follow proper procedures before he submitted a whistleblower’s complaint concerning the now infamous July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Congress, which was then used to form the foundation of congressional Democrats’ first failed attempt to impeach and oust President Trump from office.
“Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States,” Gabbard went on to say in a statement. “Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth.”
“And this, along with the politicization of the whistleblower process by a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress, are egregious examples of the deep state playbook on how to weaponize the Intelligence Community,” the director continued, according to a report from the New York Post.
The DNI found that Atkinson only interviewed four individuals, including the whistleblower, during the 2019 investigation into the president. None of the four had any firsthand knowledge of Trump’s call with Zelenskyy. One of the interviewees was a “friend” of the whistleblower who “was a co-author of the January 2017 Russia Hoax Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) and close colleague of disgraced former FBI Agent Peter Strzok.”
The other two individuals questioned by Atkinson “had zero firsthand knowledge of the July 2019 phone call.” Gabbard said in her statement that despite not having any firsthand evidence, Atkinson weaponized the whistleblower process and ignored DOJ guidance, relying solely on second-hand testimony to make sure the complaint was released to Congress.
It was also revealed that the whistleblower may have been biased, despite Atkinson testifying before the House Intelligence Committee that he “never considered the whistleblower to be politically biased.” However, in his memo following the interview with the whistleblower, he noted that the “Complainant is a registered Democrat.” The same individual also said they “worked closely with Vice President Joe Biden as an expert on Ukraine.”
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Add to that the fact that the whistleblower, later identified as intelligence analyst Eric Ciaramella, lied to investigators about contacting Congress before officially filing his complaint. All of this could come with some hefty legal consequences for Ciaramella. President Trump was eventually acquitted by Senate Republicans.
When the president was asked by a reporter if he felt vindicated by the new revelations about Ciaramella, he answered in the affirmative. “They’re a bunch of crooked people. You’re talking about, with respect to all of the things that they put against me? Well, it’s come out in so many different ways. Thank you very much for that question by the way. I appreciate it.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video