The NSA made the referral last summer concerning reports, including one in The New York Times, earlier that year during Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation process that quoted information from an intercept of two Hezbollah terrorist figures who claimed Gabbard, during a 2017 trip to Syria, had met with the "big guy."
The Times suggested the reference was taken by some to mean Gabbard had met with a top Hezbollah terrorist leader, a claim she adamantly denied.
NSA concluded the leak accurately contained information from one of its intercepts but that Gabbard had not in fact met with Hezbollah leaders.
The spy agency identified potential leakers among Senate Intelligence Committee Democrat staff who had access to the intercept prior to the Times report, sources said.
The referral languished inside the Justice Department for months — with top leaders unaware of the concerns — until FBI Director Kash Patel was alerted to the existence of the referral a few weeks ago.
Since then, FBI counterintelligence and criminal agents have ramped up their probe and expanded to other potential leaks and media contacts tied to the committee’s Democrats, sources said.
Hat tip to the analysts and truth tellers at 'No Such Agency.'