Top Lawmakers Tell Intel Community Inspector General: Come Clean On Secret Changes To Whistleblower Rules
Lawmakers in both chambers wrote to the Intelligence Community Inspector General on Monday demanding answers about why his office secretly eliminated a requirement that whistleblower complaints contain first-hand evidence.
Sean Davis
By Sean Davis
September 30, 2019
Republican lawmakers in both the Senate and House on Monday demanded answers from the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) about secret revisions to the office’s guidance on “urgent concern†whistleblower complaints. The Federalist first reported last week that between May 2018 and August 2019, the ICIG secretly eliminated its requirement that potential whistleblowers provide only first-hand evidence of alleged wrongdoing.
In their letter to Michael Atkinson, the ICIG, Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) noted that the anti-Trump complainant offered no direct, first-hand evidence of alleged wrongdoing against President Donald Trump. Instead, the complaint is littered with gossip, hearsay, and rumor. The lawmakers specifically asked the ICIG to explain when the whistleblower guidance was revised, by whom, and for what reason.
“Based on the language on [the May 24, 2018] form, it appears that the requirement for first-hand information has been an ICIG policy regardless of how a whistleblower makes an urgent concern report,†they wrote. “Curiously the urgent disclosure form that now appears on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence website has recently changed and no longer contains this explicit first-hand information requirement.â€
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https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/30/top-lawmakers-tell-intel-community-inspector-general-come-clean-on-secret-changes-to-whistleblower-rules/
