When whistleblowers file complaints like the one that was recently filed regarding President Trump, individuals and organizations are called upon to account for their actions. Accountability for one’s actions or the actions of a company, group, or agency is critical to the healthy functioning of companies, organizations, and governments. In a previous article, we investigated how the President’s interactions with foreign leaders have the potential to undermine the integrity of the United States’ Presidential election process. In this article, we’ll explore another element of the whistleblower’s complaint; the allegation that Senior White House officials misused their authority in handling records of a phone call after it happened.
The complaint recently filed by an unidentified whistleblower regarding President Trump’s July 25th, 2019 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alleges that the President exerted pressure on Zelenskyy to take actions that would help strengthen Trump’s 2020 bid for reelection. The complaint also alleges that in the days following the telephone conversation, Senior officials in the White House acted outside the scope of their authority in ordering records of the phone call to be locked down.
Select White House officials do have the authority to divert sensitive and classified information from the standard procedures for information handling that White House officials ordinarily follow while carrying out their official duties. There is a system outside of customary information handling procedures that is only to be used to handle information that is highly sensitive and classified. The whistleblower’s complaint raises the question of whether the White House officials who removed the records of the July 25th phone call from the standard information handling system and placed them into the system intended only for highly sensitive information abused their power and discretion in doing so.
According to the whistleblower’s complaint, at least one White House official stated that the telephone call did not contain any highly sensitive national security matters and thus did not require special handling apart from the customary procedures. The system is reserved for codeword-level intelligence matters, and it is directly managed by the National Security Council’s (NSC’s) Directorate for Intelligence Programs. Codeword-level intelligence matters include things like covert operations. Codeword-level intelligence can only be viewed by individuals who possess the proper level of security clearance to see them and the specific codeword associated with the information. The whistleblower’s complaint claims that other officials share the concern over this Administration using the NSC-managed information handling system for inappropriate reasons. Their concern applies to the July 25th telephone conversation, as well as other matters placed into that system, that are politically sensitive but have nothing to do with national security.
Whistleblower complaints draw criticism and even abuse from those whose alleged wrongdoing is detailed in them. No one wants their poor choices or mistakes brought to everyone’s attention, but whistleblowers must continue to do this crucial work. Accountability is critical to the proper function of corporations, organizations, and governments, and whistleblowers play a significant role in holding people and organizations accountable for their actions. To learn more about the protections available to whistleblowers, call Mississippi Whistleblower Attorney Jonathan Barrett of Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (800) 707-9577 for an initial consultation.