Tulsi Gabbard notified President Donald Trump on Friday that she is resigning as director of national intelligence, effective June 30.Gabbard, whom Trump allegedly considered replacing in recent months and whose judgment regarding Iranian nuclear aspirations Trump publicly questioned last year, said in a letter to the president that she is "deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half."'Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her.'The former Hawaii congresswoman and retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel noted that her "husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer" and "faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months."Gabbard married cinematographer Abraham Williams in 2015. In addition too putting his skills to work in service of Gabbard's 2020 presidential campaign, Williams has worked on numerous documentaries, music videos, and commercials."At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle," continued Gabbard. "Abraham has been my rock throughout our eleven years of marriage — standing steadfast through my deployment to East Africa on a Joint Special Operations mission, multiple political campaigns, and now my service in this role."RELATED: Vindicated? Gabbard probes the biolabs Romney called her a 'traitor' for mentioning. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images"His strength and love have sustained me through every challenge," wrote Gabbard, adding that she could not "in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position."In her letter, Gabbard emphasized the "significant progress" that she has made at the ODNI "advancing unprecedented transparency and restoring integrity to the intelligence community."For instance, she helped expose the genesis of the Russia hoax; revoked the security clearances of dozens of officials over Russiagate; started the ball rolling on investigating hundreds of shady taxpayer-funded biolabs outside the U.S.; unearthed damning documents highlighting the bogus basis of Trump's 2019 impeachment; and cleaned house at the ODNI, canning a multitude of deep-staters and saving taxpayers oodles of cash.Despite her successes, Gabbard said that there is work left to be done and noted that she is "fully committed to ensuring a smooth and thorough transition over the coming weeks so that you and your team experience no disruption in leadership or momentum."Gabbard concluded her letter by stressing she will "remain forever grateful" to the president and "to the American people for the profound honor of serving our nation as DNI."Trump characterized the director's resignation as unfortunate, said Gabbard will be missed, and noted that he has no doubt that Williams "will soon be better than ever.""Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her," wrote Trump. "Her highly respected Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Aaron Lukas, will serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence.Gabbard's resignation comes just two months after one of her deputies, Joe Kent, resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest of the Trump administration's war in Iran.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
