Mazie Hirono: “if you work for the Federal Government, you work for the people. You have a duty by law to come forward to report…”

“if you work for the Federal Government, you work for the people. You have a duty by law to come forward to report misconduct, fraud, misdemeanors, and other crimes going on in government. This duty has been on the books since 1778. Why? Because people working in government are in a pretty good position to see when something is not right in their workplace. We want a government that is doing right by us. It is not easy for whistleblowers to come forward to report wrongdoing in government. That is why we have laws that protect a whistleblower from intimidation, discrimination, and retaliation, and laws that protect their identity. On August 12, a whistleblower--and we don't know whether this was a man or a woman, so for ease of reference, I will refer to the whistleblower as ``she''--came forward, as the law required, to file a complaint with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. The complaint alleged that the President was ``using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.'' The inspector general, also as required, determined that the complaint was credible and involved an urgent concern. The House, on learning of the whistleblower's complaint, began to ask questions. What did the House investigation uncover? That the whistleblower's complaint was right. Bill Taylor, the top U.S.…”