An indictment for a CIA agent who left the agency in 2002. A 20-month sentence for an FBI linguist. Solitary confinement for alleged WikiLeaker Bradley Manning.
The past year has not been a good one for whistleblowers. But if you want the public to see important information without you seeing the back hand of the law, there’s a new book for you.
Stephen Martin Kohn’s “The Whistleblower’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing What’s Right and Protecting Yourself”, which is billed as the “first-ever consumer’s guide to whistleblowing,” hit bookstores on Tuesday. The book is for whistleblowers of all stripes — including government employees.
Kohn, the executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center, has worked on such cases for 27 years, and his book explains the relevant federal and state laws. It also offers 21 ” basic rules every whistleblower needs to know,” including “Always Ask: Is the Taxpayer on the Hook?,” “If Working for the Government, Use the First Amendment,” and “Be Prepared for the Lid to Blow.”
“Reading this book can make the difference between going to jail or obtaining a million-dollar reward,” said Lindsey M. Williams, the National Whistleblowers Center’s director of advocacy and development in a release touting the book.
The hope is that there’ll be more Frederic Whitehursts and fewer Bradley Birkenfelds, Williams said. Whitehurst exposed forensic fraud at the FBI, and got $300,000 from the Justice Department for his work. Birkenfeld brought about a tax fraud case against his employers at the bank UBS — but is also serving a three-year sentence for his role in the fraud, despite the Justice Department describing his testimony as “essential.”
Kohn has written several legal treatises on the subject during his career, but this book is “written in layman’s terms,” Williams said when reached by phone on Wednesday. For those working in government agencies, it’s key to remember that you’re protected by the First Amendment as long as the information you’re providing is properly in the “public’s right to know,” she said.
That may not come as any solace to Jeffrey Sterling, who was indicted in December for allegedly telling New York Times reporter James Risen about the CIA recruiting a Russian scientist to give faulty nuclear information to Iran.
Risen has refused to give up the name of his source for the story, which was in his 2006 book State of War. But he was recently subpoenaed for a second time, and said that federal investigators have spied on his phone and bank records.
The Obama Justice Department has been aggressive in investigating leakers of classified information, despite the president’s campaign pledge to “protect whistleblowers.”
Kohn writes in his book that giving information to reporters can be very tricky, particularly if the employer has a tendency to initiate leak investigations. “Going to the press — be it 60 Minutes or a local newspaper — is the quintessential act of whistleblowing,” he writes. “But obtaining protection for going to the news media can be very difficult.”
Going somewhere other than the press can be a safer option. Giving information to a member of Congress, Williams notes, can provide more legal protection. Indeed, the “Pentagon Papers” in the 1970s were famous for being in The New York Times, but Daniel Ellsberg also provided them to then-Sen. Mike Gravel, who read the papers aloud during a filibuster.
Some government agencies provide whistleblower protection. Last year’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act created monetary awards for people who give information to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also opens the door for extra compensation if the whistleblower faces retaliation.
Kohn himself couldn’t be reached, but he told The Washington Times that he was “tired of listening to the horror stories” about people who tried to do the right thing but didn’t adequately protect themselves. As he noted in the interview, it all depends on “who you blow the whistle to and what you say.”
