Deposition of U.S. Homeland Security whistleblower unlikely before election, lawyer says

https://news.yahoo.com/deposition-u-homeland-security-whistleblower-183823016.html

Mark Hosenball
,Reuters•October 16, 2020

A whistleblower and former official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who alleges he was pressured to stop providing assessments of Russian electoral interference, will likely not be deposed by Congress before the Nov. 3 elections, his lawyer said on Friday.

Mark Zaid, a lawyer for former DHS intelligence chief Brian Murphy, told Reuters the deposition before a U.S. House of Representatives panel is being held up while DHS processes security clearances for Murphy's legal team.

"Given the current state of electoral politics, I would think it highly unlikely that any deposition would take place before the election," Zaid said. "But we are committed to ensuring Congress receives the relevant classified information regardless of who wins on November 3rd."

The delay, Zaid added, had effectively halted further disclosures by the whistleblower.

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Murphy said in a whistleblower complaint on Sept. 8 that President Donald Trump’s acting DHS chief Chad Wolf told him to stop providing assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the Nov. 3 election in part because it “made the President look bad.”

Wolf also asked Murphy to play down U.S. white supremacist activity, the complaint said. In both matters, Murphy said he refused to comply with Wolf’s instructions.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Mary Milliken and Tom Brown)