Before you disclose: The Do’s and Don’ts of Talking to the Press, Congress, and the Path to Blowing the Whistle

A Conversation for Government Employees, Contractors, and Military Personnel

This episode is produced in partnership with the Women’s Foreign Policy Network, which you can follow on Facebook or Twitter at @WomensFPNetwork.

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan organization that works towards a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government. Since 1981, POGO has worked with federal insiders and whistleblowers to expose waste, fraud, abuse, and other wrongdoing in the federal government.

Many federal and contractor employees have questions regarding their whistleblower rights to disclose wrongdoing related to their work as well as their First Amendment rights off duty. POGO’s Federal Employee Rights Training Program aims to educate federal employees about tactics to safely and meaningfully disclose information through protected channels and the protections that exist if an employee is illegally retaliated against. Federal sector employee speech is more likely to be chilled if those employees do not know their rights.

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Topics covered in this episode: 

5:38 – Overview of protections available – Do you want to disclose openly or anonymously?

7:55 – What does the process of going to the Project on Government Oversight look like?

10: 45 – What if I work with classified documents or information?

12:40 – Should I go to the press? What should I consider before going to the press?

15:30 – Appropriate entities to whom a whistleblower can disclose, if they would like to have the protection of the Whistleblower Protection Act

19:03  – How are military and intel employees different? What are their first steps?

22:00 – Are sensitive, but not classified, materials treated differently?

24:50 – What does all this mean, in a post-Wikileaks era?

29:07 – What can I say on social media about politics or policy? What are our personal first amendment rights when it comes to the Hatch Act?

34:08 – What are your responsibilities if you’re the supervisor someone is disclosing to?

35:51 – What if you don’t agree with policy?

39:35 – What does Abraham Lincoln have to do with false claims and bounty laws??

40:46 – Details on the dissent channel available at the U.S. State Department

42:22 – Are women prosecuted differently?

43:30 – Disclosing & your security clearance

50:50  – What tools can you use to encrypt your communications?

Terminology in this episode: 

Hatch Act

False Claims Act

Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA)

Presidential Policy Directive 19

Merit System Protection Board

Office of Special Counsel (OSC)

Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

SCIF = Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility

Resource: The Art of Anonymous Activism

Guests for this episode: 

DANIELLE BRIAN

Executive Director, Project On Government Oversight

Danielle has worked with federal whistleblowers and others inside the federal government for 35 years on investigations ranging from the $13 billion Superconducting Super Collider to uncovering billions of dollars in fraud committed by the oil and gas industry.