By DAVID KLEPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees have rejected a top-secret complaint from an anonymous government insider alleging that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard withheld classified information for political reasons.

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The responses this week from Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Rick Crawford mean the complaint is unlikely to proceed further, though Democratic lawmakers who also have seen the document said they continue to question why it took Gabbard’s office eight months to refer the complaint to Congress as required by law.

Gabbard’s office has rejected any allegations of wrongdoing as well as criticism of the timeframe for the referral, saying the complaint included so many classified details that it necessitated an extensive legal and security review. Select lawmakers were able to view the complaint this week.

Cotton wrote Thursday on X that he agreed with an earlier inspector general’s conclusion that the complaint did not appear to be credible. He said he believes the complaint was prompted by political opposition to Gabbard and the Trump administration.

“To be frank, it seems like just another effort by the president’s critics in and out of government to undermine policies that they don’t like,” wrote the Arkansas Republican, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

When asked about the complaint, Cotton’s office referred to his social media post.

Crawford, the House Intelligence Committee chairman also of Arkansas, said he believes the complaint was an attempt to smear Gabbard’s reputation.

Democrats are pushing for explanations about why it took Gabbard’s office months to refer the complaint to the required members of Congress. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the law requires such a report to be sent within 21 days.

“The law is clear,” Warner said Thursday at the Capitol. “I think it was an effort to try to bury this whistleblower complaint.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, speaks out against President Donald Trump’s investigation of the 2020 presidential election ballots in Georgia, and the involvement of Trump ally Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Warner said he also still has questions about the details of the complaint, noting that it was heavily redacted.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, said in a written statement that he will keep looking into the matter.

In a memo sent to lawmakers this week, the intelligence community’s inspector general said the complaint also accused Gabbard’s office of general counsel of failing to report a potential crime to the Department of Justice. The memo, which contains redactions, does not offer further details of either allegation.

Last June, then-inspector general Tamara Johnson found that the claim Gabbard distributed classified information along political lines did not appear to be credible, according to the current watchdog, Christopher Fox. Johnson was “unable to assess the apparent credibility” of the accusation about the general counsel’s office, Fox wrote in the memo.

Fox said he would have deemed the complaint non-urgent, unlike the previous inspector general, but respected the decision of his predecessor and therefore sent it to lawmakers.

Copies of the top-secret complaint were hand-delivered this week to the “Gang of Eight” — a group comprised of the House and Senate leaders from both parties as well as the four top lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Andrew Bakaj, attorney for the person who made the complaint, has said that while he cannot discuss the details of the report or the identity of its author, there is no justification for keeping it from Congress since last spring. Bakaj is a former CIA officer and chief legal counsel at Whistleblower Aid.

Gabbard coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. She has recently drawn attention for another matter — appearing on site last week when the FBI served a search warrant on election offices in Georgia that are central to Trump’s disproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election.

By RIO YAMAT

Thirty-one families that lost relatives in two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 Max jetliners asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to revive a criminal case against the aircraft manufacturer.

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Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, urged a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court’s dismissal of a criminal conspiracy charge Boeing faced for allegedly misleading Federal Aviation Administration regulators about a flight-control system tied to the crashes, which killed 346 people.

The dismissal came at the request of the U.S. government after it reached a deal with Boeing that allowed the company to avoid prosecution in exchange for paying or investing an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for victims’ families, and internal safety and quality measures.

Cassell said Thursday that federal prosecutors violated the families’ rights by failing to properly consult them before striking the deal and shutting them out of the process.

Federal prosecutors countered that, for years, the government, “has solicited and weighed the views of the crash victims’ families as it’s decided whether and how to prosecute the Boeing Company.”

More than a dozen family members attended Thursday’s hearing in New Orleans, and Cassell said many more “around the globe” listened to a livestream of the arguments.

“I feel that there wouldn’t be meaningful accountability without a trial,” Paul Njoroge said in a statement after the hearing. Njoroge, who lives in Canada, lost his entire family in the second of the two crashes — his wife, Carolyne, their children, ages 6, 4 and 9 months, and his mother-in-law.

All passengers and crew died when the 737 Max jets crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019 — a Lion Air flight that plunged into the sea off the coast of Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed into a field shortly after takeoff.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas, who oversaw the case for years, issued a written decision in November that described the families’ arguments as compelling. But O’Connor said federal judges couldn’t block a charge dismissal simply because they disagreed with the government’s view that a settlement deal served the public interest.

The judge also concluded that federal prosecutors hadn’t acted in bad faith, had explained their decision and had met their obligations under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

In the case of its deal with Boeing, the Justice Department had argued that given the possibility a jury might acquit the company, taking the case to trial carried a risk that Boeing would be spared any further punishment.

Boeing attorney Paul Clement said Thursday that more than 60 families of crash victims “affirmatively supported” the deal and dozens more did not oppose it.

“Boeing deeply regrets” the tragic crashes, Clement said, and “has taken extraordinary steps to improve its internal processes and has paid substantial compensation” to the victims’ families.

The appeals court panel that heard the arguments said it would issue a decision at a later date.

The criminal case took many twists and turns after the Justice Department first charged Boeing in 2021 with defrauding the government but agreed not to prosecute if the company paid a settlement and took steps to comply with anti-fraud laws.

However, federal prosecutors determined in 2024 that Boeing had violated the agreement, and the company agreed to plead guilty to the charge. O’Connor later rejected that plea deal, however, and directed the two sides to resume negotiations. The Justice Department returned last year with the new deal and its request to withdraw the criminal charge.

The case centered around a software system that Boeing developed for the 737 Max, which airlines began flying in 2017. The plane was Boeing’s answer to a new, more fuel-efficient model from European rival Airbus, and Boeing billed it as an updated 737 that wouldn’t require much additional pilot training.

But the Max did include significant changes, some of which Boeing downplayed — most notably, the addition of an automated flight-control system designed to help account for the plane’s larger engines. Boeing didn’t mention the system in airplane manuals, and most pilots didn’t know about it.

In both of the deadly crashes, that software pitched the nose of the plane down repeatedly based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots flying for Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines were unable to regain control. After the Ethiopia crash, the planes were grounded worldwide for 20 months.

Investigators found that Boeing did not inform key Federal Aviation Administration personnel about changes it had made to the software before regulators set pilot training requirements for the Max and certified the airliner for flight.

Local Rumor, the American comfort food restaurant on Selby Avenue, will close on Saturday.

The eatery, which opened in August of 2024 in the former Blue Door Pub space, announced the closure on social media. The post, written by owner Scott Cochran, cited an inability to reach a “sustainable agreement” with the space’s landlord.

The post continued:

“More than anything, we want this week to be a send-off — a chance to gather one more time, share a drink, a meal, a hug, and say goodbye the way this place was always meant to be experienced: together.

“This space was never just a business. It was built by the people who worked here and the people who walked through the doors. Our staff showed up every day with heart, grit, and care, often giving more than anyone ever saw. Our regulars became family. The conversations, the laughter, the nights that stretched long — those memories will stay with us forever.

“I especially want to thank my wife Sara, my children, and my family for the unbelievable support behind the scenes. None of this happens without them. They carried more than anyone knows.

“What we built here doesn’t disappear when the doors close. It lives in the relationships and the community that formed inside these walls.

“If this place meant something to you, we’d love to see you this week. Come raise a glass with us. Let’s give it the goodbye it deserves.

“Thank you for letting us be part of your lives. It has been an honor. Much Gratitude + Love, Scott”

Local Rumor: 1811 Selby Ave., St. Paul; 612-790-0614

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An ice sculpture made out of frozen letters spelling “Prosecute ICE” in front of the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul was vandalized shortly after its unveiling Thursday.

Jake Lang, a Jan. 6 rioter who served four years in prison before being pardoned by President Donald Trump, claimed responsibility for the sculpture’s destruction. Lang posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, kicking the frozen letters.

“I’m currently being arrested outside the Minnesota State Capitol for turning the ‘PROSECUTE ICE’ sign the Democrats erected into the wonderful ‘PRO ICE,’” Lang wrote on X.

It was not immediately clear if Lang was in custody Thursday afternoon.

The sculpture was installed by veterans with Common Defense, a veteran-led movement dedicated to protecting democracy and combating authoritarianism, according to its website.

“I gave eight years of my life in service to this country in the military. For a January 6 insurrectionist to destroy our display is an attack on the First Amendment veterans like me fought to defend,” said Jacob Thomas, a veteran and communications director for Common Defense, in a news release.

Lang in Minnesota

Lang’s act of vandalism comes days before he was set to hold a rally at the Capitol, just weeks after he held a Minneapolis “March Against Fraud,” which was met with counter-protests and violence.

An estimated 2,000 counter-protesters followed the dozens who took part in the march itself. Lang fled after being doused with water, pelted with snowballs and punched by counter-protesters.

In a social media post on Jan. 28, Lang said he would return to Minnesota and had secured a permit for a noon rally at the State Capitol on Saturday, Feb. 7. But a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Administration said Lang had not obtained approval for the gathering.

The Minnesota State Patrol, which handles security at the Capitol, said Tuesday it was aware of Lang’s plans for a rally and planned to increase its security presence on Saturday.

An anti-Trump group secured a permit for a rally at the Capitol later that day. The People’s Coalition Against Trump is scheduled to gather at 3 p.m. on Saturday, according to a Capitol events calendar.

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