Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard loves the spotlight as much as anyone in the Trump administration and is far more telegenic than most cabinet members. But, for most of the last year, she has been a notably less visible presence than many of her colleagues. Before jumping on the Trump train, Gabbard had a profile as a Democrat who was critical of the forever wars, a history that put her at odds with Trump as he pursued an openly imperialist and belligerent foreign policy. Despite holding the top intelligence post in the administration, she was kept out of the loop on major policies to bomb Iran and kidnap the president of Venezuela.

But even if Trump has had no use for Gabbard’s advice on foreign policy, that doesn’t mean she’s entirely superfluous. Gabbard has made herself useful by becoming the driving force behind a dangerous push to vindicate his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

On Wednesday, Gabbard participated in an FBI raid on a Fulton County, Georgia, elections office. In the wake of the raid, Trump started posting a series of unhinged and discredited conspiracy theories claiming that the 2020 election was stolen by a cabal that included former president Barack Obama, the FBI, and the CIA, as well as the governments of Italy and China. One post quoted a Twitter user named The SCIF who wrote (in part):

Italian officials at Leonardo SpA used military satellites to help hack U.S. voting machines, flipping votes from Trump to Biden using CIA-developed tools like Hammer and Scorecard. Along with numerous other methods of fraud and manipulation. China reportedly coordinated the whole operation, providing the tech backbone and bribes to corrupt Americans.

While this conspiracy theory is completely baseless, it has a powerful hold on Trump’s imagination. He brings it up on the most unexpected occasions, notably when justifying the kidnapping of Venezuelan Prime Minister Nicolas Maduro.

The fantasy that 2020 was a stolen election is partly psychological in origin: Trump’s narcissism prevents him from admitting defeat. But the election conspiracy isn’t just a personal quirk; it is integral to Trump’s ongoing political project. In particular, it provides a perfect rationale for interfering in future elections.

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Citing multiple officials, The Wall Street Journal reports that, based on Gabbard’s work, “the administration has discussed executive orders on voting ahead of the midterm election.”

Virginia Senator Mark Warner described Gabbard’s Fulton raid as “a move that should scare the hell out of all of us.” He added,

Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus—in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees “fully and currently informed” of relevant national security concerns—or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.

Speaking on CNN, Warner called attention to reports that the FBI field chief in Atlanta either quit or was fired before the raid. Warner also noted that the US Attorney who signed the search warrant request was from Missouri, not Georgia. These two facts point to irregularities in the investigation that demand congressional investigation.

Writing on CNN’s news site, Zachary B. Wolf linked the Georgia raid with ongoing efforts at subverting the 2026 midterms:

The prime example was the implication in a recent letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi that the federal government could tone down its immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota if that state complied with federal demands for voter roll data.

One local official called the letter a “ransom note” to end what local authorities view as an invasion of immigration agents in exchange for giving up data on Minnesota voters.

The administration also demanded that all states turn over detailed data on their voters, including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and dates of birth. The Trump administration has sued more than 20 states that have refused to turn over the data.

While judges have sided with states that have resisted White House efforts to intimidate their election boards, Trump’s efforts to sabotage the 2026 election will continue. Gabbard’s function is to provide an ideological rationale for these efforts by supplying purported evidence of 2020 election fraud.

This project will undermine US democracy even if it fails in its short-term goals. If the Democrats win back one or both branches of Congress in the midterms, the partisan fantasy that Trump and Gabbard have concocted will justify the administration’s ignoring congressional oversight.

There are few easy answers to Trump’s assault on democracy, but one imperative is to call it out as it happens. One reason for the current crisis is that during Joe Biden’s presidency Democrats were too reluctant and slow to prosecute Trump for his attempt to thwart the 2020 election results. Mark Warner is on the right track in his denunciation of Gabbard. His colleagues should join him in calling for an investigation into her activities. Beyond that, Democrats would do well to let Gabbard and other Trump officials know that if they abuse their power, there will be criminal consequences in the future.