Reading Room Document

Applicability of Criminal Statutes and "Whistleblower" Legislation to Unauthorized Employee Disclosures

Several criminal statutes may be applicable to improper disclosure by a Justice Department employee of information pertaining to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) undercover investigations. Employees of the FBI are excepted from the general "whistleblower" provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978; those provisions do not in any event apply where a disclosure is specifically prohibited by law, as is apparently the case here. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22466/download.

February 7, 1980