On Monday, The New York Times reported U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard met with agents from the FBI’s field office in Atlanta overseeing the election inquiry and that Gabbard used her cellphone to call President Trump, who spoke to the agents on speakerphone, praising and thanking them for their work. Former Justice Department official David Laufman told the Times, “It is extremely dangerous to our democracy and a shocking abandonment of years of sound policy for the president to be directly involved in the conduct of domestic criminal investigations, especially one that seeks to redress his personal grievances and to make the director of national intelligence an instrument of his political will.”