Ex-DOJ Lawyer Says He Leaked News of Warrantless Wiretaps
Speaking against the advice of his lawyers, a former Justice Department official told Newsweek magazine that he leaked news of the government’s warrantless wiretap program.
Thomas Tamm, a former lawyer in the department’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, said he told the New York Times about the secret National Security Agency program in a 2004 pay phone call from a subway station, Newsweek reports.
Eighteen months later, the New York Times ran a story about the eavesdropping program, used to wiretap overseas phone calls and e-mail of terrorism suspects. The article cited multiple anonymous sources.
Tamm thought the program’s rules appeared to be hiding the program from a special intelligence court authorized to oversee it, Newsweek says. Since the story broke, the White House has required wiretap review by the special court, and Congress has passed a new law to regulate the eavesdropping.
But Tamm’s home has been searched by federal agents and he lives in fear he will be arrested for leaking the information. Still he has few regrets, according to the story. But he worries about the impact on his family. He is struggling to find work as a lawyer and is more than $30,000 in debt.
“I thought this [secret program] was something the other branches of the government and the public ought to know about. So they could decide: Do they want this massive spying program to be taking place?” Tamm told Newsweek.
“If somebody were to say, who am I to do that? I would say I had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. It’s stunning that somebody higher up the chain of command didn’t speak up.”
