In the fallout from my disclosures about Donald Trump, I had one lingering regret.
To be clear, I’ve never regretted speaking out. In 2018, I wrote an anonymous opinion piece in the New York Times sounding the alarm about Trump’s misconduct. Then, ahead of the 2020 election, I came forward to tell the country in detail what I’d witnessed inside his administration, including a president who offered pardons in exchange for law-breaking, implored us to shoot migrants at the border, and almost dragged America into a nuclear conflict. An election was coming. And I believed Americans needed to know these things — urgently — before deciding whether to rehire or fire him.
But the regret that hung with me was how I did it. Not the initial anonymity. But how the allegations themselves were shared.
To this day, I wish I’d teamed up with a whistleblower organization to package each disclosure as a discrete, formal complaint for the relevant agencies and congressional committees. Believe it or not, formal complaints are harder to ignore than bombshell headlines. They land on the desks of investigators with the right jurisdiction… they create a paper trail… and they tend to become real investigations — which then become media firestorms anyway.
Many of my disclosures never reached the investigative stage, despite in some cases being graver than the disclosures that led to Trump’s first impeachment. The reason is rather embarrassing. It’s because I’d basically forgotten that whistleblower-defense groups existed. And I thought my only real way to get the information out was to go straight to the people.
I’m addressing this note to the “would-be” whistleblowers inside the second Trump administration who are thinking about coming forward.
I know how many of you are out there. You work at DHS, the Justice Department, or the Pentagon. Maybe you left this past year after being pushed out or fired, carrying a banker’s box of trinkets from your desk and a pit in your stomach about what you’d witnessed. You’ve said nothing because the price of speaking out has never felt higher. You don’t want to be attacked or to risk your financial future or even, perhaps, to foreclose the possibility of going back into government.
That fear is measurable. We documented it in our film CORRUPTIONLAND. In 2024, roughly three-fourths of federal employees said in a government workforce survey that they could report a violation of law without fear of reprisal. After Trump’s first year back in office, an independent survey by the Partnership for Public Service found that only 22.5 percent felt confident they could. In other words, the intimidation from the White House is working.
I understand the fear. Coming forward cost me almost everything. But I would do it again in a heartbeat. You’ll hear the same from most other whistleblowers. It’s not just the weight off your shoulders. It’s the inviolable sense that over yourself — over your mind and body — you’re forever sovereign. That’s what true freedom feels like.
And something changed last week that should encourage anyone who’s still in the shadows. Voters handed Democrats the majority in Congress, and in January the gavels and the subpoena power will change hands to people who will protect you, rather than persecute you, for disclosing illegal activity inside the second Trump administration.
So don’t wait to be called as a witness. This is the moment to bring them the truth.
Here’s what I wish someone had told me: there are people who do this for a living. Before you try to show up on Capitol Hill with a whistleblower complaint, you can connect with nonprofit groups who’ve protected some of the biggest whistleblowers in modern history. There are groups like Whistleblower Aid and the Government Accountability Project, which have been protecting truth-tellers for free for years. Many are ex-government employees and former whistleblowers themselves who know how to prepare your disclosure lawfully and confidentially.
(I’m proud to say that supporting groups like this has been a key mission of DEFIANCE.org, and in the coming weeks, we’ll have more announcements about how we’re doing that.)
That’s when it’s time to go to Congress, and federal law protects your right to do it. Most whistleblower organizations will “sherpa” you through that process. But the Democratic Staff of the House Oversight Committee run a tip line, and Senate Democrats have a whistleblower portal. My advice would be to use a personal device (never a government one), and consult a lawyer on what you can reference when reaching out.
By the way, you don’t have to put your name on it. I first published my warnings anonymously so that Trump would have to answer the argument instead of attacking the messenger, and I later chose to come forward. But that choice belongs to you.
Even so, I won’t pretend it’s a cakewalk. The emotional and professional toll can be great, but I promise it’s not greater than the toll of sitting on evidence of wrongdoing. I’ve watched for years what silence has cost my former colleagues. It’s corroded their consciences, their character, and their careers.
I know all too well that witnesses to this administration’s corruption have been berated, threatened, and silenced. But their harassment of you has gone on long enough. Now it’s your turn to stand up, and this time you won’t be standing alone.
Your friend, in defiance,
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