DEMS/INTELLIGENCE/LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WHISTLEBLOWER: “For years, lawmakers have argued that intelligence personnel concerned about government actions — like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning — should go through formal whistleblower channels instead of illegally leaking government secrets. But now, an unprecedented standoff between Congress and the Trump administration over a staffer who did go through the formal channels, only to have their concerns withheld from lawmakers, has laid bare a loophole in whistleblower protection laws that many thought would never be revealed: What happens when an intelligence agent blows the whistle on the president? It’s a situation that has lawmakers pointing fingers and national security veterans rattled. Democrats are saying the administration — not the law — is to blame. Republicans, long advocates for strengthening whistleblower protections, are blaming the media and saying President Donald Trump might be entitled to some constitutionally mandated privacy. Former officials and whistleblower specialists are saying Congress needs to ensure this never happens again.”
–Natasha Bertrand, “‘A deficiency in the law’: How Trump accidentally exposed a whistleblower loophole,” Politico, September 19, 2019 10:03 pm