RealTeaNews · Whistleblowers
They spoke up from the inside
Ten people who exposed what powerful institutions kept hidden, and what happened to them next. Each summary sticks to the public record and links its sources.
Summaries written by RealTeaNews from the linked sources. Including someone here is not a judgement on whether what they did was lawful; several were prosecuted, and some were convicted. Portraits are not used: each card shows initials only.
Daniel Ellsberg
US military analyst, RAND Corporation · 1931–2023
Vietnam War · 1971
What they disclosed
Ellsberg worked on a top secret Defense Department study of US decision-making in Vietnam from 1945 to 1968. In 1971 he leaked portions of it, which became known as the Pentagon Papers, to The New York Times. The Supreme Court ruled that the government had not made the case for stopping publication.
What happened next
He was indicted under the Espionage Act. In 1973 all charges were dismissed after evidence of government misconduct came to light, including a break-in at his psychiatrist’s office.
Sources
Mark Felt “Deep Throat”
Associate director, FBI · 1913–2008
Watergate · 1972–74
What they disclosed
In the early 1970s Felt was effectively running the FBI’s day-to-day operations. He secretly helped Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward with the paper’s Watergate investigation and was known only as “Deep Throat”. His inside information is considered instrumental in implicating the White House.
What happened next
His identity stayed secret for more than 30 years, until he revealed it in a 2005 Vanity Fair interview. Separately, in 1980 he was convicted of ordering illegal break-ins in a bombing investigation, and was later pardoned.
Sources
Karen Silkwood
Laboratory technician, Kerr-McGee plutonium plant, Oklahoma · 1946–1974
Nuclear safety · 1974
What they disclosed
As a union member at the plant, Silkwood reported health and safety problems, including spills, falsified records and missing plutonium, and testified to the US Atomic Energy Commission.
What happened next
In November 1974 she died in a car crash on her way to meet a union official and a newspaper reporter. The documents she was carrying were never found, and the circumstances of the crash are still disputed. Her estate sued Kerr-McGee over her plutonium contamination; the case reached the US Supreme Court in 1984 and was settled in 1986 for $1.38 million.
Sources
Jeffrey Wigand
Former vice president of research, Brown & Williamson
Tobacco industry · 1995–96
What they disclosed
After he was fired in 1993, Wigand spoke to CBS’s 60 Minutes about what he said the company knew about nicotine and addiction. CBS management at first held the interview back, worried about a lawsuit over his confidentiality agreement.
What happened next
After The Wall Street Journal published a deposition he had given in a Mississippi case, CBS aired the interview on 4 February 1996. Brown & Williamson sued him.
Sources
Sherron Watkins
Vice president of corporate development, Enron
Corporate fraud · 2001
What they disclosed
In August 2001 Watkins warned Enron chairman Kenneth Lay, in a letter and in person, that the company’s accounting was improper and that Enron could “implode in a wave of accounting scandals”.
What happened next
Enron collapsed into bankruptcy at the end of 2001. Watkins testified to the US House and Senate in February 2002, and TIME named her one of its 2002 Persons of the Year, “The Whistleblowers”.
Sources
Katharine Gun
Mandarin translator, GCHQ (UK)
Iraq War · 2003
What they disclosed
In 2003 Gun leaked an email that she said was a request from US intelligence for British help to tap the phones of countries due to vote at the UN on war against Iraq. The Observer newspaper published it.
What happened next
She was sacked and charged under the Official Secrets Act. In February 2004 the prosecution offered no evidence and she was formally cleared.
Sources
Chelsea Manning
US Army intelligence analyst
Iraq and Afghanistan · 2010
What they disclosed
While deployed in Iraq, Manning gave WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified documents. They included files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 250,000 diplomatic cables, and video of a US helicopter crew firing on a group of people that included two Reuters employees.
What happened next
In 2013 a court-martial convicted her of offences including espionage and found her not guilty of aiding the enemy. She was sentenced to 35 years. President Obama commuted most of the sentence in January 2017, and she was released that May.
Sources
Edward Snowden
Former CIA employee and NSA contractor
Mass surveillance · 2013
What they disclosed
Snowden gave journalists classified documents revealing wide-ranging NSA surveillance programmes, including a court order for Verizon phone metadata and the PRISM programme. The Guardian and The Washington Post published the first stories in June 2013.
What happened next
The US charged him with espionage. He has lived in Russia since 2013 and was granted Russian citizenship in 2022. The Guardian US and The Washington Post won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service for their reporting.
Sources
Reality Winner
NSA contractor and US Air Force veteran
Election security · 2017
What they disclosed
In 2017 Winner leaked a classified intelligence report about Russian attempts to hack US election systems before the 2016 election to the news site The Intercept.
What happened next
She pleaded guilty and in August 2018 was sentenced to 63 months in prison, which prosecutors called the longest sentence for an unauthorised disclosure of national defence information to the media. She was released early in June 2021.
Sources
Frances Haugen
Former product manager, Facebook
Social media · 2021
What they disclosed
Haugen came forward in 2021 with internal company documents. In her written testimony she said she believed the company’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken democracy, and that its leadership put profits before safety.
What happened next
On 5 October 2021 she testified to the US Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection, in a hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower”.
Sources
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