Who is responsible for enforcing the US whistleblower law? The president.

David Colapinto: Whistleblower protections for federal employees generally are weak. It is a complex process and for someone who works in the intelligence community like we’re dealing with this whistleblower in the news this week, the protections are even worse. If something were to happen hypothetically to this intelligence community whistleblower — say the person gets fired tomorrow — they could file a complaint through an administrative process within the intelligence community. But do you know who has the authority to make the final decision in that case? The Director of National Intelligence is the final decision-maker. There’s no judicial review. There’s no right to file a complaint in court. There’s no right to bring a retaliation case to a jury of your peers. And under that administrative process, who is responsible for ensuring that it is properly enforced? The answer to that is Donald Trump, the president of the United States. Congress says in the statute the president of the United States is responsible for the enforcement of the whistleblower laws.

This is an unusual circumstance where I think because of the seriousness and the significance, it has received attention. Most whistleblower complaints do not receive the same level of attention. There are a lot of complaints that just get mired in the administrative process that has been set up. … The government agencies that are assigned to investigate whistleblower complaints, like the Office of Special Counsel and the inspectors general, they are poorly funded, they don’t have enough people to investigate these allegations when they come out. And so it’s a very long, labor-intensive process to blow the whistle in the federal government.

Believe it or not, overall, the whistleblower laws in the United States are stronger than most countries. That is true for both government employees and in the private sector. The European Union, for example, has just recently mandated that corporations in Europe establish whistleblowing procedures. The principles that they adopted are very good. They have yet to be fully implemented, and we’ll see how that goes. But up until this time, it has been very difficult in a lot of countries around the world.

It is shocking, absolutely shocking, that the head of the United States government, whose duty it is to enforce the laws protecting whistleblowers, particularly in the intelligence community, would make such a statement comparing someone who has followed the rules and done the correct thing by reporting misconduct which is being verified every day. This whistleblower was already found credible by the inspector general before the complaint became known. The fact that the president would say such a thing is just truly astonishing, and it shows how disconnected from reality he is. I’m not even sure the president understands what his role is.

The No. 1 thing is to protect the whistleblower. The comments by the president are very disturbing, and if the identity of the whistleblower is unmasked against that person’s will, then retaliation is sure to follow. Certainly, there will be a smear campaign by the White House, which is already underway without knowing the whistleblower’s identity, and that is the biggest concern. The rest will take care of itself in terms of Congress analyzing and investigating what happened and whether or not any action needs to be taken under the Constitution.