[Jim Sciutto, Cnn Anchor, Newsroom:] In an extremely rare review, the intelligence community's inspector general, appointed by this president, is rejecting, contradicting, fact-checking false claims pushed by President Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill and on television. First, some GOP lawmakers are arguing about the validity of the basis of the whistleblower's claims. Have a listen.
[Sen. Lindsey Graham:] I can't believe we're talking about impeaching the president based on an accusation based on hearsay. Why did they change the rules about a whistleblower? You can use hearsay when you used could not, just weeks before the complaint.
[Rep. Jim Jordan:] He had no firsthand knowledge, he heard something from someone who may have heard something from someone
[Jake Tapper, Cnn Anchor, State Of The Union:] No, no. His sources were firsthand sources. You know, as well as I do, that you do not need to have firsthand knowledge to be a whistleblower. And even if
[Jordan:] Well, you don't know because they changed the form. You used to, they changed the form.
[Tapper:] There's
[Poppy Harlow, Cnn Anchor, Newsroom:] They didn't.
[Sciutto:] That's not true.
[Harlow:] They didn't change the rule. They may have changed how the form looked, they didn't change the rule. The type of rhetoric by some in the Republican Party has spurred the inspector general to take a remarkable step yesterday, twice correcting the record on what the president and his allies have said, and noting the whistleblower had, quote, "direct knowledge" of certain alleged conduct. With us now is Mandy Smithberger, she's director for Defense Information for Project on Government Oversight. Mandy, thank you very much for being here. Let me just, you know, ask you, your read on the fact that the I.G. appointed by the president felt the need to do this twice yesterday, publicly, to correct the record.
[Mandy Smithberger, Director For Defense Information, Project On Government Oversight:] So it's an unusual step, and I think it really underscores the importance of having independent watchdogs to help oversee our federal government. It's very clear in the law that the standard is a reasonable belief that misconduct that occurred, it doesn't matter what was on the form. And, again, as the I.G. clarified yesterday, the whistleblower had direct and indirect knowledge. What's important to look at is the underlying disclosure, focusing on a form as a red herring.
[Sciutto:] Let me ask you about the president attempting to out this whistleblower. I just want to play his comments and get your response on the significance of this. Have a listen.
[Unidentified Female:] Mr. President, do you now know who the whistleblower is, sir?
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] Well, we're trying to find out about a whistleblower. When you have a whistleblower that reports things that were incorrect
[Sciutto:] That, an unfounded statement, there. But, of course, the law is designed, is it not, to protect whistleblowers' identity so they feel the security to report such things within government without penalty?
[Smithberger:] Yes, so the president's statements are extremely troubling. I think an important thing to keep in mind is that the protections in place in the law frequently look a lot stronger than we actually see them being in force. And what we've seen throughout this process is that we need to strengthen the protected channels in the whistleblower protections. Because there were a number of places where the process broke down, and Congress might not have gotten this information but for the
[I.g. -- Harlow:] Right.
[Smithberger:] really making sure that he was doing his duty before Congress.
[Harlow:] Let me just read you from the statute, right? This became law in '98, it was amended in 2010, in 2014. Quote, "The inspector general shall not disclose the identity of the employee without the consent of the employee." You have said that these protections are broadly applied but not always absolute?
[Smithberger:] Right. So I think we especially are unclear what happens if the president goes after the identity of the whistleblower. He's unfortunately sending a very chilling message to the rest of the federal government, in trying to out who this individual is. And even with those protections in place, as you know, it's only regarding the I.G. And we saw in the Valerie Plame case
[Harlow:] Right.
[Smithberger:] that Privacy Act protections are much weaker than we all thought they were.
[Sciutto:] You mentioned Valerie Plame case as one, a Bush administration official, if folks don't remember. She was outed as a CIA agent when her husband was a State Department official
[Harlow:] Yes.
[Sciutto:] questioned the Bush administration's rationale for war in Iraq. So tell us how the Privacy Act, applied to her, may or may not apply here.
[Smithberger:] So in her case, she was a covert agent so there are special protections in place for covert agents that, in this case, it appears that the whistleblower is not. And, again, there isn't a sufficient executive branch check if the president or other government officials violate the privacy of this whistleblower. And, again, the process is going to take an independent investigation from the ICIG to substantiate those concerns, and the whistleblower is largely hanging out in the wind and vulnerable while they wait for that due process to occur.
[Harlow:] Wow, wow. OK. Mandy, thank you very much
[Sciutto:] Yes.
[Harlow:] for that reporting
[Smithberger:] Thank you so much.
[Harlow:] it's important. Here's "What to Watch" today, take a quick look.
[Text:] What to Watch... 11:00 a.m. Eastern, EPA Administration gives remarks at forum; 12:00 p.m. Eastern, Appeals court hearing on asylum cases; 3:00 p.m. Eastern, Rep. Chris Collins to plead guilty in court