WASHINGTON DC (September 23, 2019) — Senator Charles "Chuck" Grassley, a longtime champion of whistleblowers and founder of the bipartisan Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus, made the following statement regarding news reports involving an intelligence community whistleblower:
“Whistleblower laws are critical to providing safe outlets to share information so governmental officials can be held responsible without harming national security. What we don’t want is another situation like Edward Snowden, where information is released publicly and our national security is harmed. The Inspector General plays an important role in this process, so overruling his assessment shouldn’t become the norm. In this case, we simply don’t yet have enough facts to reach an informed conclusion.
“One thing we do know is that rampant speculation by politicians and the media is not helpful. That’s how the false Russia collusion narrative took root. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. Going forward, it’s important to respect the law and the whistleblower’s confidentiality while we gather the facts of the case. And of course, transparency is always the best policy, so long as we don’t endanger national security.
“Finally, none of this should detract from investigating legitimate allegations of wrongdoing either at home or abroad. That includes unauthorized disclosures of potentially classified information during the Russia investigation that I've asked the Inspector General about.”
