Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

Tune in today at 1:00pm EDT to Honesty Without Fear on Progressive Radio Network.

In the first half, Richard Renner interviews author Kathleen Sharp about Mary Scott, a hospital finance administrator who blew the whistle on Metropolitan Health Corp bilking the federal government through billing fraud and kickbacks. After the federal government reached a $6.25 million settlement agreement with Metro Health based on her whistleblowing, the company fought back hard. They convinced a judge, without a hearing, to levy a $1.6 million sanction against Ms. Scott for her lawyers' misconduct. Metro Health is now frustrating Ms. Scott's attempts to pick up the pieces by opposing her bankruptcy case. Kathleen Sharp will explain this harrowing tale of how hard fraudsters can fight back against whistleblowers.

In the second half hour, Guest Host Rosemary Dew, a 13-year veteran FBI agent, interviews fellow FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley. They discuss the Obama Administration's use of the Espionage Act to prosecute national security whistleblowers, such as NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake.

Submit Your Question to be asked on air during the show or call in to 1-888-874-4888.

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News is breaking that federal prosecutors have agreed to drop all serious (felony) charges against Thomas Drake, the Maryland whistleblower from the National Security Administration (NSA). In a face-saving ploy by the government, prosecutors insisted that Drake plead guilty to a misdemeanor of exceeding authorized use of a government computer.  Drake agreed, with the proviso that he will receive no fine and no jail time.

Drake worked for years to get NSA to stop wasting $1.2 billion of taxpayer dollars on the the mismanaged Trailblazer program that sought to have outside contractors sift through torrents of email and phone calls without any warrants.  After he exhausted efforts at internal whistleblowing, he raised his concerns with a reporter from the Baltimore Sun. Drake insists that he disclosed no classified information. The Bush administration decided against pressing any criminal case against Drake.  The new administration commenced controversial charges under the Espionage Act. Today, those charges are gone. The government's case was hamstrung by an administration decision to withhold the key information because it would disclose information about how the government receives or reviews information.

We are happy for Drake that the serious charges against him are dismissed. I call on the administration to immediately pardon Drake for the misdemeanor offense.  Government employees should not face criminal charges for helping the American people discover waste, fraud and abuse committed with their tax dollars. The managers who wasted the $1.2 billion suffered no consequences. Drake should be rewarded, not punished, for putting his career on the line by raising a concern about integrity.

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Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center, wrote a history lesson published today by England's Guardian. Responding to recent calls to prosecute WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning under the 1917 Espionage Act, Kohn recounts how the Espionage Act was actually used. "The law has nothing to do with prosecuting spies. From its inception, it had everything to do with suppressing dissent," Kohn says. He explains that:

intellectuals, journalists, film producers and pacifist religious figures were also prosecuted. Prison terms were long, and some political prisoners died in federal jails. The abuses under the law were legendary, and mark a sad day in US history.

Kohn concludes with this plea:

The attorney general should stop trying to resurrect the Espionage Act, and instead dust off his copy of the US constitution. If he has any question as to the meaning of the first amendment, he should read James Madison's 1789 speech, in which he introduced the bill of rights in the first Congress of the United States: "Freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable."

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