Whistleblower blasts ’60 Minutes’ for ‘misinterpretation’ of letter

The whistleblower responsible for the latest Democratic push toward impeachment has been repeatedly mentioned by President Donald Trump on Twitter, after being partially doxxed by the New York Times, and is none too please about it.

Whistleblowers, under federal law, are to be protected at every step of the turn.  Retaliation against them is not only immoral, but illegal, and we must be very careful not to overturn this necessary piece of the puzzle.  Whistleblowers are integral to the oversight functionality of our government, and there will almost certainly be at time in which a similar set of circumstances arise during a democratic presidency.

We mustn’t allow anyone to cross this anti-whistleblower threshold, especially not the New York Times and the mainstream media.

Now, in the wake of the New York Times’ scandal, once-venerable news program 60 Minutes is also being accused of improper handling of information pertaining to the whistleblower in this particular case.

A lawyer representing the unidentified whistleblower in Congress’ impeachment investigation blasted “60 Minutes” on Sunday, saying the program “misinterpreted” a letter from his legal team in reporting that it indicated his client is under federal protection.

Mark Zaid, the attorney, tweeted that the famed news program “completely misinterpreted contents of our letter,” which he linked to from his Twitter post.

So, what was the complaint?

“60 Minutes” reported Sunday that it received a letter that indicated that the government whistleblower has been put under federal protection due to safety concerns.

The report showed a PDF file of the Sept. 28 letter from the Compass Rose Legal Group, to the officer of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

The letter said, in part, “The purpose of this letter is to formally notify you of serious concerns we have regarding our client’s personal safety. We appreciate your office’s support thus far to activate appropriate resources to ensure their safety.”

The letter did not specify the “support” or “resources” that were offered.

CBS and Zaid then got heated.

The CBS program tweeted a brief defense of its report, saying: “60 Minutes stands by its sources and reporting on the whistleblower.”

This prompted a more scathing response from Zaid.

“Is @60Minutes now asserting it has a source other than letter our legal team sent to @ODNIgov? Because if it doesn’t, and I know it doesn’t, then it is literally making stuff up. That helps no one, especially the #whistleblower. The media should always accurately report facts,” he tweeted.

The media frenzy surrounding this whistleblower controversy has been unprecedented, and has casted serious doubts on whether or not the infotainment industry can be trusted to properly convey the facts of this case.