Intel Chief Gabbard Announces Resignation

(MENAFN) US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has announced her resignation, citing her husband's diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer — a departure that arrives just weeks after she publicly disclosed an investigation into over 120 US-funded biological laboratories worldwide, including more than 40 in Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026," Gabbard wrote in a letter to the president, shared publicly on social media. "My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle."

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Gabbard would be succeeded by her current Deputy DNI, Aaron Lukas. "Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her," Trump wrote.

The timing of her exit has drawn attention. Less than two weeks before the resignation became public, Gabbard told the New York Post she was probing more than 120 US-funded biological laboratories across the globe, with particular focus on whether facilities in Ukraine had conducted "dangerous gain-of-function research" — the scientific process of modifying pathogens to increase their lethality or transmissibility.

The biolab controversy carries a long and contested history. Russia's Defense Ministry raised alarms about the facilities as early as 2022, publishing documents it claimed showed laboratories working on "plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases." The US government initially dismissed such claims as conspiracy theory, though then-US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland acknowledged to lawmakers that "Ukraine has biological research facilities," stopping short of confirming American funding or operational involvement.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov of Russia's Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces concluded in 2023, following a review of thousands of documents seized from labs in Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kherson, that "the US, under the guise of ensuring global biosecurity, conducted dual-use research, including the creation of biological weapons components, in close proximity to Russian borders." Kirillov led Russia's investigation into the laboratories until he was assassinated in 2024, an attack allegedly carried out by Ukrainian security services.

Gabbard's political trajectory has been unconventional by Washington standards. A former Democrat, she broke with the party in 2022, denouncing its leadership as "elitist warmongers" and anti-white racists before endorsing Trump in 2024, arguing that only he could "walk us back from the brink of war."

Despite her alignment with Trump, media reports and Washington insiders suggested Gabbard was increasingly marginalized within the administration — sidelined by senior figures including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth during the planning of the Venezuelan operation targeting President Nicolas Maduro in January and the Iran strikes in February. Prior to joining the administration, Gabbard had been a consistent opponent of military action against Iran and a critic of US weapons transfers to Ukraine, writing in 2022 that the Russia-Ukraine conflict "could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia's legitimate security concerns."

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