The Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) delivered the “read and return” intelligence report to congress that sits at the background of an anonymous whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence, DNI Tulsi Gabbard. [CBS Story]  In addition to delivering the report, the ICIG also delivered a declassified letter outlining the framework of the backstory [SEE HERE].

I strongly urge people to take a few minutes and read both links above, particularly the pdf of the ICIG report that frames the complaint.  In essence, the same playbook the IC tried to create the impeachment narrative against President Trump (2019), they repeated against DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Now, the story gets a little weedy, so at the risk of yet another subpoena for outlining highly classified intelligence information simply by using public sourcing information and strategic brain mapping to put dots together, the easiest way to explain what has happened is to tell the big picture story of it.

People opposed to President Trump inside the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which in 2025 was a sub-silo inside the CIA, wrote an analysis saying the Venezuela gang ‘Tren de Aragua” (TdA) was not officially affiliated with the Venezuela government. Therefore, when President Trump and Secretary Rubio defined TdA as an officially recognized terrorist group, the analysis was intended to separate the TdA violence from the official U.S. policy toward Venezuela.

[The NIC is the “federal agency” being described in the media reports. I suspect the report’s authors were Mike Collins and Maria Langan-Riekhof or close associates therein.]

The “highly classified” component to the analysis, the part that intentionally skewers the telling of the story, is almost certainly the sourcing for the NIC analysis.

Here I would estimate with 90%+ confidence, that a CIA asset within the Venezuela government was the source of the intelligence saying TdA is not officially aligned with the Venezuelan govt.  That CIA asset could be someone very close to former dictator Nicholas Maduro, or someone currently inside the transitional government.  That source makes the component to the NIC analysis “highly classified.”  [However, it also fulfills the goals and operational agenda of the people who want to weaponize the “whistleblower angle.]

Now, I want to break out a component here because it is directly related to the reason for anti-Trump IC to manufacture this official CIA-NIC analysis.  Remember, Judge James Boasberg’s argument against deporting TdA members was based on his refusal to accept the deportees were designated terrorists.  Venezuela would not take them back, so President Trump sent them to the maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

This is where the policy of the Trump administration runs into the lawfare created by the manufactured CIA analysis. The IC aligns with Lawfare. Insert the familiar name Mary McCord here and you will see why momentarily, including her personal relationship with Judge James Boasberg who appointed Mary McCord as amicus curiae to the FISA Court.

The CIA analysis says TdA is not an official agency of the Venezuela government. This becomes a hot button issue around the deportation of the TdA gang members as terrorists.  Trump, Rubio, Noem and Homan using the designation to facilitate fast removal and deportation, while Lawfare operate using the technical definitions of “terrorist group” against the intentions of the administration.   That’s the baseline for the construct, and that also explains why Judge James Boasberg doubles, triples and quadruples down against the DOJ on this issue.

Now, the NIC analysis report, by itself, is useless when the CIA (Ratcliffe) and DNI (Gabbard) ignore it and accept it for what it is, political interference in policy.  However, the report authors don’t let the ignoring stop their efforts.  The authors then leak the existence of the report to media, and that’s exactly what happens.  That’s why CBS’s Margaret Brennan was armed with talking points to confront Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The NIC authors then shift into Lawfare mode, claiming to be whistleblowers because their analysis is not being shared with the larger intelligence community.  The CIA/NIC authors claim national security is threatened because the Trump administration is continuing a policy toward Venezuela that is against the operational intelligence they have gathered.  This part is weaponizing intelligence using inside DC Lawfare rules.

This failure to change policy, then creates the “whistleblower” standard within the intelligence community that is then handed to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG).  The ICIG then has to take the whistleblower report, confront the DNI and investigate whether there is any substance to the complaint.  Which is what happened:

[SOURCE]

Acting ICIG Tamara Johnson then determined the initial whistleblower complaint was baseless, in that the allegations surrounding why the report was not widely disseminated and/or used to change policy were presumptuous.

Keep in mind… In real time in the background, according to both Secretary Marco Rubio and Joint Chiefs’ Chairman Dan ‘Raisin’ Caine, the Dept of War was organizing, training and deploying military assets to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.  So, while this NIC report was being debated and reviewed, the White House was already executing a “highly classified” policy objective toward Venezuela.

[SOURCE]

The reality of what was taking place, explains the background timing outlined in the ICIG report linked above as it pertains to Venezuela operations conducted by the White House and the Pentagon.  Once the Venezuela operation was completed the policy changed.

Back to the Whistleblower:  The “whistleblower” claim of the DNI impeding the dissemination of NIC intelligence work product now becomes the attack vector to target DNI Tulsi Gabbard.  The raw intelligence, likely a CIA asset inside the Venezuela government, now becomes the extremely sensitive aspect that creates the useful cloud to be weaponized.

Now does the statement of DNI Spokesperson Olivia Coleman make more sense: “This is a classic case of a politically motivated individual weaponizing their position in the Intelligence Community, submitting a baseless complaint and then burying it in highly classified information to create 1) false intrigue, 2) a manufactured narrative, and 3) conditions which make it substantially more difficult to produce “security guidance” for transmittal to Congress.”

As stated by HPSCI committee member Rick Crawford earlier this evening: “House Intel has received the letter from IC IG Fox on the alleged whistleblower complaint, and the Ranking Member and I, along with the appropriate staff, have had the opportunity to review the complaint. After doing so, I concur with the conclusion that the Biden-era IC IG, Tamara Johnson, reached regarding the non-credible nature of the complaint and the re-review that the current IC IG, Chris Fox, conducted, reaching the same conclusion. The ensuing media firestorm—fed by speculation and little fact—was an attempt to smear DNI Gabbard and the Trump Administration. This is the same deep state playbook used by the fake whistleblower that sparked the first Trump impeachment witch hunt, even using the same lawyer. The deep state works hard, but DNI Gabbard and her team work harder. You know you are right over the target when they are deploying every tool in their arsenal against you.”

So that’s the basic story, but as with all things in Washington DC, you find more.

What you will note in this current IC “whistleblower” operation (Venezuela), is the same playbook used in the prior IC “whistleblower” operation (Ciaramella, Ukraine).

The first IC/Lawfare operation was to impeach President Trump, the second IC/Lawfare operation is created to form the baseline to impeach DNI Gabbard.  Both Trump and Gabbard represent an existential threat to the IC construct within government.  [Which is exactly why I was outlining the importance of the Trump National Security Advisor and DNI back in 2024.]  The IC is the “seven ways from Sunday” real threat.

Within this current ‘whistleblower’ operation we again find the fingerprints of the Lawfare architect, Mary McCord; who, even in her invisibility, becomes present when you look at the associations and the approach.  This context becomes more of an ‘ah-ha’ moment when you overlay McCord’s relationship with Judge James Boasberg and then review the extreme antagonism of Boasberg toward the administration when it comes to the TdA deportations.

I hope everyone can see the full story now.  This is how DC rolls.

If you have questions, drop them in the comments.

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