Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday she was resigning from her job as US President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, saying her husband had been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and that she was stepping away from her role to help him.
Gabbard advised Trump of her intention to step down during an Oval Office meeting on Friday, Fox News Digital reported earlier. The resignation is effective June 30, it said.
A source familiar with the matter said that Gabbard had been forced out by the White House. Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, said on social media that Gabbard was stepping aside in light of her husband’s diagnosis.
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“Tulsi Gabbard is an America First patriot who has served this country faithfully and extremely well over the last 16 months,” Ingle said.
In her resignation letter posted on social media, Gabbard told Trump she was “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”.
She cited her husband Abraham Williams’ recent diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer.