Leaked Memos Suggest a Reclusive Guru Who Wanted To 'Rule the World' Scripted Tulsi Gabbard for Years

A trove of confidential memos has thrust the question of who really directed Tulsi Gabbard into the open, with a former follower alleging that a secretive Hawaii guru scripted her politics for the best part of a decade.

The Washington Post investigation, published on 21 June 2026 by reporter Jon Swaine, draws on hundreds of memos said to detail policy and political guidance for Gabbard during her years in Congress.

The newspaper alleges the instructions trace back to Chris Butler, the reclusive leader of the Science of Identity Foundation, the breakaway Hare Krishna group in which Gabbard was raised. Gabbard's office has rejected the reporting as bigotry, and Butler's associates deny he authored anything.

The Memos and the Disciple Who Leaked Them

The Science of Identity Foundation broke away from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in the 1970s and teaches a form of Hinduism centred on devotion to Krishna, alongside expectations around meditation, yoga, and diet.

Gabbard grew up inside the organisation, where her parents held senior positions, and she has previously described Butler as her guru. Former members have characterised the group as a cult that isolated disciples from the outside world, a description the foundation denies.

The documents reached the Post through Rebecca Saltzburg, a former member of the foundation who worked on digital strategy for several of Gabbard's congressional campaigns. According to the newspaper, she handed over the material because she believed Gabbard had misled voters about Butler's role and his sway over her decisions.

Swaine wrote that the content was extraordinary, with dozens of attached memos appearing to set out what legislation Gabbard should propose, which policies she should adopt and how she should carry herself on television.

Butler, now 78, does not use a computer, and Saltzburg alleged that he passed his advice and directives to Gabbard verbally. The Post reported that emails sent from a domain linked to Butler's office carried memos with detailed guidance on her legislative agenda.

One 2014 instruction reportedly told her to 'Get it started in the morning', pressing her to introduce a bill targeting countries whose citizens fought for the Islamic State; Gabbard introduced such a measure roughly a week later, the newspaper said.

A Pattern of Talking Points, Tweets, and Votes

Between 2014 and 2016, the Post identified dozens of instances in which Gabbard, then a sitting congresswoman, echoed talking points that matched directives circulating within the foundation.

The newspaper reported that her voting record in the House aligned closely with the guidance she was said to be receiving. On at least one occasion, a Butler aide reportedly sent her a pre-written tweet, which she posted without changing a word.

The reporting goes further, alleging that loyalists ran dozens of fake social media accounts to defend and amplify Gabbard, and that the documents suggest she was aware of the operation. Some of those same accounts resurfaced to praise her after she announced her departure from the Trump administration. The memos were not uniformly flattering, the Post noted, with the author at one point branding her 'mealymouthed' over a bill and telling her that nobody cared what she thought.

Questions over authorship sit at the heart of the dispute. Butler's associate Sunil Khemaney told the Post that he, not Butler, wrote the directives, yet the newspaper said its analysis of a 173-page compilation pointed to Butler, citing a first-person reference to growing up as a teenager in Hawaii, where Butler was raised, and Khemaney was not.

Denials, a Resignation, and the Stakes for US Intelligence

Gabbard has long distanced herself from the suggestion that Butler steered her. Asked directly in 2019 whether he had served as her political mentor, she replied, 'No, no, not at all'. The Post said her chief of staff was the only person to respond to repeated requests for comment, with a spokeswoman calling the allegations 'a blatant example of anti-Hindu bigotry' and questioning why readers would want another attack on the director's faith.

The timing has sharpened the story. Gabbard announced her resignation as director of national intelligence in May 2026, citing her husband Abraham's diagnosis with a rare bone cancer, with a final day of 30 June. The Post reported that her resignation was made public two days after it told her the investigation would proceed, though no causal link has been established between the two.

The wider concern raised by critics is one of influence at the top of US national security. Butler has previously derided American intelligence and defence agencies as institutions run by 'madmen', the very apparatus Gabbard came to oversee. A former member quoted by the Post alleged that his ambitions ran beyond religion, claiming he wanted 'to rule the world'.

Whether the memos prove control or merely counsel, they have left a lingering question over how far an unelected guru reached into the life of a woman who once held the keys to America's secrets.