EDITOR NOTE: This episode was recorded before a federal judge in Massachusetts issued her ruling blocking the mail-in ballot rule.

North Carolina and Delaware started sending out mail-in ballots today. Two weeks from now, most other states will follow. And the USPS mail-in ballot rule that a whistleblower says was built to "catastrophically fail" is still being fought over in federal court, with the Trump administration asking the Supreme Court's shadow docket to let it go forward.

David Kligerman is the senior vice president and special counsel at WhistleblowerAid.org. He is the lawyer for the USPS whistleblower. This is his first extended on-record conversation about the case, how his client came forward, what they disclosed to Congress, and what happens next.

Among the details that have not been widely reported: the whistleblower found their way to Whistleblower Aid through a kind of underground railroad process, listening to a show like this one, reaching out, being passed along through trusted civil society contacts until they arrived at a law firm that could protect them. David says this raises a serious question: how many other people inside the federal government have something to disclose and simply haven't found a safe way out yet.

The episode also covers the broader landscape of whistleblowing under this administration: inspector generals gutted and weaponized against the people they're supposed to protect, the Office of Special Counsel neutered, the Merit Systems Protection Board dismembered, federal employment rules being rewritten to put protected positions into at-will categories. And what David thinks changes if Democrats win the House: subpoena authority, the ability to hold hearings, and what he expects will be a far more robust environment for disclosures.

If you work inside the federal government and have something to share: WhistleblowerAid.org. Conversations with attorneys are free, anonymous, and fully protected by attorney-client privilege.

USPS Whistleblower Disclosure

Make It Make Sense Substack: DHS Citizenship List

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Ballots go out in North Carolina and Delaware today. Here's why that matters right now.

2:46 Meet David Kligerman: SVP and special counsel at WhistleblowerAid.org, lawyer for the USPS whistleblower

2:58 How the USPS whistleblower found their way to Whistleblower Aid: an underground railroad through civil society

5:00 The bigger question: how many other people inside the government have something to disclose and can't find a safe way out

5:18 Nine months of Whistleblower Aid cases: ICE, Social Security, HUD, and what's still in the pipeline

7:30 The landscape for federal whistleblowers right now: inspector generals weaponized, Special Counsel neutered, MSPB dismembered

9:21 How the USPS whistleblower came forward and what they disclosed to Congress

14:00 What the disclosure actually says: haphazard development, zero failure protocol, court order violated

18:00 Congress is now asking for an investigation: what subpoena authority changes and why it matters

22:00 What David thinks a Democratic House means for whistleblower disclosures: a game changer

24:44 The "cavalry" effect: how the prospect of Congressional oversight is already encouraging more people to come forward

27:10 What you can do right now if you work inside the federal government and have something to share

29:32 WhistleblowerAid.org: free, anonymous, fully protected by attorney-client privilege

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