FBI slams House proposal to grant Tulsi Gabbard leading role on counterintelligence

The FBI says a proposal by House lawmakers to strip the bureau of its authority over counterintelligence efforts and hand it over to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard would create confusion and undermine national security.

In a sharply worded letter to Congress, the FBI expressed its “strong objection” to the proposal, exposing a power struggle between Gabbard and the FBI’s director, Kash Patel, and other intelligence agencies.

“The FBI has consistently articulated its strong objection to the proposal, and believes it would cause serious and long-lasting damage to the US national security,” the unclassified letter said. “Furthermore, the FBI is aware of many other objections submitted by other members of the IC,” it stated, referring to the intelligence community.

The FBI argued that it has decades of experience in countering foreign espionage in the United States with a national network of 53 field offices, and that the proposal would create unnecessary bureaucracy and shift authority to officials without relevant expertise.

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