Thomas Tamm
Thomas Tamm is a public defender in Washington County, Maryland. He formerly worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice Office of Intelligence Policy and Review during 2004 when senior Justice officials responded to the warrantless NSA surveillance concerning eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. He was an anonymous whistleblower to The New York Times, making the initial disclosures which led to reporters winning Pulitzer Prizes in 2006.
Maryland agreed to drop ethics charges against him in 2009 relating to those disclosures, and the USDOJ announced it had dropped its investigation in 2011. In January 2016, the D.C. Office of Bar Counsel announced that it had brought disciplinary charges against Tamm relating to those events. Despite some controversy with respect to politicization of that office and similar charges being brought to silence attorney whistleblowers especially beginning in 2014, Tamm in March 2016 agreed to public censure by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in order to allow him to proceed with his life and career.
Early life and education
Thomas Tamm was born in 1952. He is the son of Quinn Tamm and nephew of, both high-ranking officials of the FBI and federal judges, and brother of another career FBI agent. In 1974, Quinn graduated from Brown University. He then graduated from Georgetown Law School.Career
After passing the bar, Tamm joined the state's attorney's office. After gaining additional experience, he joined the United States Department of Justice's Capital Case Unit, where he litigated death penalty cases. He eventually joined the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, where he was liaison with the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.Whistleblowing
A New York Times article on December 16, 2005 exposing the warrantless NSA surveillance for the first time was based on Tamm's initial tip-offs. Reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau won a Pulitzer prize for that reporting in 2006.In 2007, FBI agents raided Tamm's house. on suspicion of his involvement in leaking the details, but it was not until 2008 – online on December 13 and then in the December 22 issue of Newsweek – that his role was confirmed and Tamm began speaking out publicly.
On April 26, 2011, after inauguration of President Barack Obama and a lengthy criminal investigation, the Justice Department announced that it would be dropping its investigation of Tamm and would not file charges.
Media exposure (2012-2013)
On August 22, 2012 The New York Times published an Op-doc produced by Laura Poitras entitled The Program. The producer characterized it as preliminary work that would be included in a documentary planned for release in 2013, as the final part of the trilogy based on interviews with William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency, who also became a whistleblower and described the details of the Stellar Wind project that he helped to design. Binney stated that the program he worked on, the facility being built at Bluffdale, Utah, had been designed for foreign espionage, but in 2001 was converted to spying on citizens in the United States, prompting concerns by him and others that the actions were illegal and unconstitutional, which led to disclosures.On October 29, 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the constitutionality of the amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that were used to authorize the creation of such facilities and justify such actions. The determination of the court was not unanimous in James R. Clapper, Jr., Director Of National Intelligence, et al., Petitioners v. Amnesty International USA et al., as Justice Breyer filed a dissenting opinion, with whom Justice Ginsburg, Justice Sotomayor, and Justice Kagan joined.
In December 2013, the Public Broadcasting System's Frontline documentary series interviewed Tamm concerning the FISA Court.