Former Staff Says Tulsi Gabbard 'Fraud' Politics Supported by Alleged Cult

Newsweek/December 2, 2024

By Monica Sager and Nick Mordowanec

Much of Tulsi Gabbard's political career can be tied back to the Science of Identity Foundation, a group that has been labeled by former members as a "cult."

Gabbard has been described as a longtime a prominent member of the group. The ex-Democrat who officially joined the Republican Party this year, was recently nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as director of national intelligence, overseeing 18 intelligence agencies including the CIA and NSA.

Former staffers and group members have suggested that Gabbard's close ties to the Foundation have influenced her political ambitions.

"The main people working on the campaign were her family members, who are also members of the cult," a former campaign volunteer told Newsweek, suggesting that money was being filtered to her from the Science of Identity Foundation. "The whole thing was a fraud."

Newsweek reached out for comment to Gabbard, her husband Abraham Williams, individuals who have worked on her campaigns, the Department of Justice, and the purported Science of Identity Foundation (SIF) group in which she also has ties, as well as those who have been identified as SIF members.

"The repeated attacks that Lt Col. Tulsi Gabbard has sustained from the media and Democrats about her faith and loyalty to our country are not only false; they are bigoted as well," Trump transition team spokesperson Alexa Henning told Newsweek. "Just like President Trump, she also recognizes the importance of U.S.-India relations and working closely together to strengthen ties--especially among common interests like combatting terrorism and strengthening economic ties."

Newsweek had heard back from Gabbard's father's office, Hawaii State Senator Mike Gabbard, after reaching out by phone, but when asked direct questions over email as requested, he did not respond.

The Science of Identity Foundation was founded in the 1970s after leader Chris Butler had taken messages of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and the Hare Krishna movement and broke off in his own group with followers from Hawaii, Australia and Southeast Asia.

The Science of Identity Foundation has had political ambitions for around 50 years when its members created the political party Independents for Godly Government. Members ran for local offices, and in 1977 the Honolulu Advertiser published a series about them called "The Secret Spiritual Base of a New Political Force."

And the Gabbard family was at the center of Butler's alleged movement.

Mike, Carol and Tulsi Gabbard began their political careers in the early 2000s. Carol won a seat on the Hawaii State Board of Education in 2000. Mike and Tulsi both won local elections in 2002. A second anonymous source told Newsweek that Butler was "instrumental" in their political careers and "gave advice."

Gabbard was the youngest legislator in the Hawaii State House of Representatives at 21 years old. After her stint in the National Guard, Gabbard ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat, which she won in 2012 and served for four terms before running for president in the Democratic primary in 2020.

"She didn't need to (talk about the Science of Identity Foundation). Their entire membership was her campaign staff, both on the campaign tour and back in Hawaii," the former volunteer told Newsweek.

Gabbard's sister, Davan, was her campaign manager and personal assistant, according to the anonymous volunteer. Carol worked on campaign finances and paperwork in Hawaii. Sunil Khemaney, who the source called a "high-ranking cult member," worked to secure Gabbard's funding through events on the road. Gabbard's husband Abraham filmed her and would "send videos back to their cult guru Chris Butler so he can monitor her every move."

Abraham's mother was Gabbard's Honolulu Office Manager, according to the volunteer. She also was previously listed as a registered agent of Wai Lana Productions LLC, a company named after Butler's wife that sells yoga DVDs and clothing.

"She was the treasurer of both Carol Gabbard's Campaign Committee (for School Board) and Mike Gabbard's homophobic Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values," the source said.

Independents for Godly Government Party chair Bill Penaroza is the father of Gabbard's former chief of staff, Kainoa Penaroza, who held the position despite having relatively little political experience. Gabbard told The New Yorker that having Penaroza as her chief of staff was a similar situation to her congressional colleague from Hawaii, Democratic Senator Brian Schatz, who was Jewish and had a chief of staff who was also Jewish. She joked at the time, "So there must be some great plan of the Jewish community in Hawaii to advance this Jewish leader and those around him?"

Newsweek has reached out to Penaroza for comment.

Kainoa posted on November 25 that a "creepy Washington Post reporter" flew to his home state to "harass and stalk former employees of @Tulsigabbard at their homes."

"He came to my door uninvited asking for me, and my father in law told him I wasn't home. This was after he already called and emailed repeatedly," Kainoa said. "This is creepy, wrong, and disturbing."

Kainoa's post was shared by Gabbard, Trump's senior adviser Jason Miller, as well as the Trump War Room account.

"HAWAII RESIDENTS Please be on the lookout for this TDS-addled creep called @jonswaine," the Trump War Room post on X, formerly known as Twitter, read. "He was last spotted doing very weird home visits to former staffers of @TulsiGabbard for his next fake news fan fiction."

Journalist Christine Gralow, of the local outlet Meanwhile in Hawaii, reported in 2017 that Kainoa's mother, Barbara Penaroza, was one of Butler's head cooks.

The second anonymous source told Newsweek these Science of Identity Foundation members would not have joined Gabbard's campaigns unless Butler told them to because "everyone wants to do what's pleasing to Chris Butler."

"They don't pay anyone," the former campaign volunteer told Newsweek, alleging that Gabbard's campaign did not pay anyone, calling it "slave labor." They also suggested that if someone did make a salary on her team, "it was assumed the money was funneled back to the cult."

Newsweek asked Gabbard's campaign specifically about these allegations.

"I left to go work for another campaign that paid a salary," the former staffer said.

In addition to political ambition, Butler's reach includes the QI Group, which has been the center of alleged illegal pyramid schemes, including with Khemaney, who accompanied Gabbard on a high-profile trip to India.

QI Group has changed its name to QNet and other entities in the face of trouble around money laundering for the past 15 years. It owns the Down to Earth vegetarian grocery chain in Hawaii along with its parent company, Healthy's.

Throughout the 1970s, Butler ran a produce farm, where today many of his disciples work, Robin Marshall, a former SIF member, told Newsweek November 22. The campaign volunteer, who was also in the Science of Identity Foundation, told Newsweek Gabbard had grown up handing out food samples at Down to Earth.

Newsweek reached out to QNET founders such as Joseph Bismark, Allan Tibby and Vijay Eswaran for comment. Gralow has connected them all to Butler. Newsweek searched FEC filings and did not find listings for Bismark, Tibby or Eswaran.

"Down to Earth and its parent company QI Group have never made any contributions to Tulsi Gabbard," a spokesperson told Newsweek. "As far as personal contributions from any of the individuals mentioned in your inquiry, that information, if any exists, will be on record with the FEC."

The Honolulu Adviser reported in 2000 that an employment civil rights complaint was filed against the management of Down to Earth for alleged religious discrimination. The lawsuit alleged that the management tried to hire and promote people to convert to the "Krishna religion."

Mark Fergusson, the CEO and CFO of Down to Earth, donated $50 to the Hawaii Republican Party on July 1, 2020, according to FEC filings. Gralow and Meanwhile in Hawaii reported on leaked Science of Identity letters that show Fergusson, who is also called Mahabhagavat das, as a close personal assistant to Butler.

Fergusson did not respond to outreach over email from Newsweek.

The Healthy Hawaii Coalition, which is also a part of the QI Group and Down to Earth franchise, has listed Carol Gabbard as a director since April 1, 2022. Mike Gabbard has been the president and director since November 27, 2001, and Tulsi Gabbard has been the vice president and director since April 1, 2022, according to Open Corporates filing reports.

Sai Hansen, another member of the group, donated $5,000 to Gabbard's Tulsi for Hawaii fund on December 31, 2011, according to the FEC. This was seven months after Gabbard announced she was running for the House.

"Coming out of SIF and groomed as a Butler acolyte, and everything I know about the organization, they tend to join themselves to power anywhere they can find it," independent journalist Pieter Friedrich told Newsweek.

Now with Gabbard's nomination to become Trump's director of national intelligence, she is closer to the White House than ever before.

"Tulsi's cult guru has political ambitions to be in the White House and they're using Tulsi to do it," the campaign volunteer told Newsweek. "They're told to worship him as a god and he wants to rule the whole world. She was groomed her whole life for this."

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