President Donald Trump fired over a dozen inspectors general over the weekend. The gutting of internal agency oversight impacts nearly every cabinet-level agency and, because of existing vacancies, means 40% of IG posts will be unfilled across the government.
This is bad news for government accountability, for certain. But it should also place renewed attention on the need to reform the Espionage Act, so if leaks increase as a result, the administration can’t abuse the act to go after journalists and their sources.
Why IGs matter
IGs are independent watchdogs within federal agencies, serving as legal pathways for whistleblowers to issue complaints about waste, fraud, and abuse. They are effective at keeping Congress and the public informed about wrongdoing when whistleblowers feel comfortable reporting misconduct to them.
Their reports have exposed:
- Details of the CIA’s torture program, including the conclusion that torture’s effectiveness in obtaining information is not “so easily measured”
- Countless reports and investigations on wasteful U.S. military spending in Afghanistan
- Justice Department reports related to surveillance, including a multi-agency investigation into the warrantless surveillance program, Stellar Wind.
If IG positions are vacant, or if there are concerns that replacements will not dutifully investigate wrongdoing, this may result in more employees leaking to the media to expose malfeasance (journalist Ken Klippenstein offers anecdotal evidence this is already happening).
That may open the door for the Trump administration to abuse the Espionage Act to target journalists and their sources for revealing information the administration wants buried, even if its release is in the public interest.
40% of IG posts vacant
The IG purge didn’t follow legal requirements that the president give both chambers of Congress 30 days’ notice and “substantive rationale” for removing an IG.
The law, however, contains no mechanism for Congress to stop a firing or reinstate an IG. And it’s unclear if there’s the political will to challenge Trump over it.
When asked if he thought Trump broke the law, Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “Well, technically yeah. But he has the authority to do it.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to thwart agency oversight. During his first term, he fired IGs (albeit not as many) and left key positions unfilled, as did former President Joe Biden.
Vacancies are a long-standing problem. There were 15 vacant IG positions across the government at the end of Biden’s term, including at the CIA and the NSA, as well as for the IG of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
With Trump’s most recent firings, there will be over 30 IG vacancies across the government. Because there are 74 statutory IG positions, this means that 40% of IG positions will be vacant.
Reform Espionage Act, protect journalists
The IG crisis should place renewed attention on reforming the Espionage Act.
In the absence of an effective, trusted internal mechanism for reporting abuse, employees who wish to inform the public of agency wrongdoing may leak to the media.
This puts journalists at proven risk — members of the press and their sources have been prosecuted, investigated, and surveilled under the Espionage Act with increasing regularity under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Congress must reform the Espionage Act both to protect whistleblowers at this critical time and to ensure the law is not used to silence journalists.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib has repeatedly proposed amendments showing how the law should be changed to protect the rights of journalists while allowing the prosecution of real espionage. As my colleague Seth Stern notes, these amendments would:
- Require the government prove the disclosure was made with the specific intent to cause harm (as opposed to informing the public about government abuse)
- Permit defendants to testify about the reasons for their disclosure, including arguing the disclosure was in the public interest
- Limit prosecution to properly classified information, crucial because overclassification is rampant and documents are needlessly stamped “classified” 75% to 90% of the time
We can only guess how often an emboldened Trump will abuse the Espionage Act during his second term. But we shouldn’t leave journalistic integrity and government oversight up to guesswork.
Tlaib should reintroduce her good amendments, and Congress should do the right thing and pass them.
Take your digital security seriously
No matter what happens next, journalists and whistleblowers need to focus on their digital security.
For more information on how best to protect your digital self, visit our digital security resources and guides, and information on tools like Secure Drop, an open source whistleblower submission system that shares and accepts documents securely.
