Alina Habba, counselor to President Trump, said she expected Gabbard and other picks to be confirmed. The nominees “are the people he selected for a reason,” she said on Fox N

Senators are expected to ask about her defense of the former government contractor, who released reams of data on U.S. surveillance programs and fled to Russia.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick to be Director of National Intelligence, refused to call Edward Snowden a traitor at her confirmation hearing.

Gabbard was questioned by Republicans and Democrats alike on her views of Snowden and whether she believes he was a traitor. She declined to say she believed he was a traitor, repeating that she felt he had broken the law and reiterating a point that she has made in the past, that he exposed practices that have resulted in the reform of 702.

Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, refused to fully denounce the 2013 leaks by Edward J. Snowden, eliciting concern from both parties.

Senators questioned Gabbard about views seen as echoing Russia's justification of its war, criticism of US involvement in Syria and a 2017 meeting with Bashar al-Assad.

Among the topics that came up: her stance on an electronic surveillance program, her push to drop charges against Edward Snowden and her 2017 meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Gabbard, a former congresswoman and an Army Reserve officer, faced challenging questions from senators on both sides of the aisle during her confirmation hearing to become director of national intelligence.

Any one of those resume bullet points might be enough to sink her precariously perched nomination, but in her confirmation hearing today it was Edward Snowden that dominated the discussion. Judging from the line of questioning from senators in both parties,

In 2020, then-Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard introduced legislation calling on the federal government to drop all charges against Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who in 2013 revealed the existence of the bulk collection of American phone records by the NSA before fleeing to Russia.

Facing more than a dozen questions about her views on NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Tulsi Gabbard held her ground at her Senate confirmation hearing.