- Leaked memos now show Tulsi Gabbard's guru, Chris Butler, allegedly guided her politics for years
- The notes reportedly shaped her stance on Iraq, ISIS legislation, and even her TV talking points
- Gabbard quit as Director of National Intelligence in late June over her husband's cancer diagnosis
Fresh questions are surfacing about Tulsi Gabbard's ties to her childhood spiritual leader, even after her recent exit from one of America's most powerful intelligence roles.
Gabbard stepped down as Director of National Intelligence at the end of June, citing her husband Abraham's diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer. She had held the post since being appointed by US President Donald Trump in early 2025.
Now, a new investigation by The Washington Post has turned the spotlight back onto Chris Butler, the spiritual leader behind the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), the group in which Gabbard was raised. More than 25,000 pages of documents, including hundreds of memos spanning 2011 to 2017, appear to show Butler's circle closely guiding Gabbard's moves throughout much of her early time in Congress.
She has previously described Butler as her guru. Her parents were senior members of the organisation, which follows teachings linked to the Hare Krishna movement.
However, some former members have accused the group of being a cult, claiming that followers were isolated from outsiders and expected to obey Butler completely, according to The Washington Post. The group has denied these allegations.
Some former members have also alleged that Butler tried to increase his influence through politics. They believe Gabbard's rise from a Hawaii politician to a well-known national figure was part of that effort. However, Butler's organisation has denied these claims.
Rebecca Saltzburg, who worked on digital strategy for several of Gabbard's congressional campaigns, found and shared more than 25,000 pages of documents, including hundreds of memos dating from 2011 to 2017, covering much of Gabbard's early years in Congress.
According to the report, the documents suggest that some members of Butler's group who received the memos were also involved in a separate online effort that allegedly used fake social media accounts to promote and defend Gabbard.
Saltzburg told The Washington Post that NineIsles.com was an email domain used by Butler's office. According to her, only Butler's secretaries and a small group of trusted followers used those email accounts. She said she had received emails from Nine Isles addresses while working on Gabbard's political campaigns.
The emails allegedly contained memos that appeared to give advice and instructions to Gabbard during her time in Congress. According to the report, the memos discussed what policies she should support, what legislation she should introduce, and even how she should present herself during television appearances.
One memo about Iraq reportedly suggested that it was time for Gabbard to publicly promote a plan to divide the country into three separate regions. "It's time for TG to come up with this idea," the memo quoted an unnamed person as saying.
In a 2014 memo, the unnamed speaker reportedly urged Gabbard to introduce legislation targeting countries whose citizens had joined the Islamic State (ISIS) and advised her to issue a public statement quickly. Saltzburg found that Gabbard released a statement the very next day and introduced a bill a week later.
In another example, a 2015 memo prepared talking points for a CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer. The memo suggested Gabbard say that being excluded from a Democratic presidential debate was not a "boo-hoo, I don't get to go to the party" situation, and she used almost the same wording on air.
The attached memos appeared to be notes or transcripts of conversations. Some files were titled things like "Call with TG" and included comments attributed to her. In other memos, Gabbard was discussed in the third person. According to Saltzburg, Butler was the only person in the group who could speak so directly and critically about Gabbard.
Gabbard was also directly asked in 2019 whether Butler had been her political mentor. She replied, "No, no, not at all."
In one memo from March 2015, there was a discussion about whether Gabbard should publicly admit in a media interview that she was a disciple of Butler. The adviser in the memo worried that if Gabbard openly discussed her relationship with Butler, it would create problems for her.
"Everything I have taught, said, lectures is going to all be laid on you. So that's my concern," the advisor said, as quoted by The Washington Post.
