Government Accountability Project

I was suffering from insomnia at the time, and I was laying in bed at 6:30 in the morning just staring at the ceiling when a friend called me, a good friend, and he said, "Have you seen The Washington Post?" I said, "No, I can't bear the thought of looking at it." And he said, "There's a woman interviewed there, an attorney, and she's saying supportive things about you.

You need to call her." I looked at the Post, and it was Jesselyn Radack, who at the time was the head of the National Security Division at the Government Accountability Project.

6:30 in the morning, I called Jess's number, which I found online, thinking, "Well, I'll just leave a voicemail message." But sure enough, she answered the phone at 6:30 in the morning.

I later learned, of course, that Jess is an early riser.

The first time I ever read your name in the papers was in relation to the Tom Drake case.

Tom Drake's case was a groundbreaking case for national security whistleblowing, and throughout the body of the reporting, in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, your name was right there next to his every time.

Was that the first national security case that you worked on? And how did you end up at the Government Accountability Project working specifically on behalf of national security whistleblowers?

Tom Drake's case was a, a seminal case because it was the first time they decided they were gonna, going to use the Espionage Act.