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Spy chief Tulsi<\/span> Gabbard is on the hunt for \u201cdeep state\u201d leakers \u2014 prompted at least in part by damaging reporting that undermined the White House\u2019s case for an immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n Her leak investigation, however, may already be running afoul of the law, a Senate Intelligence Committee member said this week.<\/p>\n Gabbard failed to notify Congress about her search for leakers despite a law requiring her to do so for \u201csignificant\u201d disclosures, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said at a Wednesday hearing.<\/p>\n King, who caucuses with the Democrats, said he thought there was no question the law had been triggered.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it was important enough to tweet it, it would seem to me it was important enough to notify this committee,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf it was important enough to tweet it, it would seem to me it was important enough to notify this committee.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n King\u2019s comments underscored how Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has managed to alienate committee Democrats at the same time as she has drawn public criticism from President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Under the disclosure law, Gabbard is also supposed to provide the committee with an initial damage assessment of significant leaks, laying out what kind of harm they have supposedly caused the government. She also has yet to do that, King said.<\/p>\n The law does appear to allow Gabbard\u2019s office some wiggle room. It is only triggered by \u201csignificant\u201d leaks, making the formal disclosure something of a judgment call.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The agency has discussed the leaks with committee staff, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told The Intercept.<\/p>\n If the law hasn\u2019t been triggered, however, that would undermine the case for a leak probe that Gabbard announced in dramatic terms, according to Lauren Harper, the Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation.<\/p>\n Following the leak, the Freedom of the Press Foundation received a declassified version of the document in question released by Gabbard under the Freedom of Information Act. The document undermined a administration talking point about the threat from the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has been used to justify Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCongress should know about investigations if leaks actually damage national security,\u201d Harper said in an email, \u201cbut the fact that ODNI hasn\u2019t provided a damage assessment for this leak helps prove our point that the leak \u2014 and the official FOIA release \u2014 didn\u2019t damage national security at all. It informed the public about one of the administration\u2019s most pernicious lies to-date.\u201d<\/p>\n Weeks after Attorney General Pam Bondi scrapped protections for journalists ensnared in Justice Department leak investigations<\/a>, King\u2019s revelation also raises fresh questions about how Trump\u2019s administration is handling such probes.<\/p>\n Gabbard has not described the full scope of the leak investigations, but they are connected at least in part to one of the most damaging revelations from inside the intelligence community this year.<\/p>\n Trump has justified mass deportation by claiming that the Tren de Aragua is engaged not just in drug trafficking but also an \u201cinvasion\u201d of the U.S. under the direction of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n In mid-April, however, the Washington Post reported<\/a> on a consensus assessment of the nation\u2019s spy agencies that Tren de Aragua was not acting under official direction and had at most low-level contacts with the Maduro government. The assessment was produced by the National Intelligence Council, which reports to Gabbard.<\/p>\n The newspaper cited \u201cpeople familiar with the matter\u201d as its sources, prompting Gabbard to blast the disclosure as the work of \u201cdeep state\u201d actors.<\/p>\n Although Gabbard assailed the leaks, her office in May declassified the assessment and released it to the Freedom of the Press Foundation under a Freedom of Information Act request. The document proved that the leakers had correctly described the assessment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although Gabbard announced the leak probe with a splash, she appears never to have followed through.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Gabbard didn\u2019t stop at badmouthing the leakers, however. Later in April, she announced on X that she had referred a leak investigation to the Justice Department. Her chief of staff said in a since-deleted post<\/a> that the investigation included the Tren de Aragua assessment.<\/p>\n In her post about the referrals, Gabbard painted the potential damage from leaks in dramatic terms, saying that they could put \u201cour nation\u2019s security at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese deep-state criminals leaked classified information for partisan political purposes to undermine POTUS\u2019 agenda,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Although Gabbard announced the leak probe with a splash, she appears never to have followed through with the next step required in serious cases.<\/p>\n Under the law, the director of national intelligence has seven days to inform the House and Senate Intelligence committees about a \u201csignificant\u201d leak of classified information.<\/p>\n Such a notification has never been sent, King said Wednesday. The office of the committee\u2019s ranking Democrat, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, confirmed that it has not received one either.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nVenezuelan Threat?<\/strong><\/h2>\n