A deadline has passed for the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), David Pekoske, to provide documents related to an investigation over allegations that the Biden administration took measures against former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard after she gave a critical interview.
Gabbard has claimed that she has been put on a "secret terror watchlist," called Quiet Skies, in late July, which has led to increased scrutiny every time she takes a flight. This led Republican House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan to open a probe to determine whether there is truth to the allegation.
The letter to Pekoske detailed that in a month Gabbard had gone through "'two Explosive Detection Canine Teams, one Transportation Security Specialist (explosives), one plainclothes TSA Supervisor, and three Federal Air Marshals' have surveilled Representative Gabbard."
Jordan said in the letter that the program "allows Federal Air Marshals to secretly surveil air travelers 'who are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the government's terrorist screening database.'" He went on to detail that the program has been "criticized for its ineffectiveness and failure to protect civil liberties" and detailed a series of cases to back his claim.
Jordan also quoted alleged whistleblowers who drew attention to Gabbard being placed in the program and said the surveillance was filled with abnormalities," with one Air Marshal calling a hotline because he didn't understand the reason for his task. "It didn't pass the smell test," one of them said.
In that context, Jordan asked for "all documents and communications between and among TSA or other executive branch agencies or officials referring to surveillance of former Representative Tulsi Gabbard or other federal elected or appointed officials for the period January 20, 2021 to the present." The hard deadline was September 4 at 5 p.m. It was not immediately clear whether any documents were given to the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
Gabbard has been active on social media denouncing the supposed decision, which she is pinning on Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris: "Kamala says she believes in freedom, but I was put on a secret terror watch list after I publicly criticized her. No one will be safe from political retaliation under a Harris administration. I put my life on the line for this country. Now the government calls me a terror threat," reads the caption of a 14-minute-long video in which she details the issue, claiming she is being targeted for political purposes.
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