FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 23rd, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT
Radim Dragomaca, [email protected]
Whistleblower Aid represents Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who served as Security Lead on Twitter’s senior executive team until January 2022.
In July, on Mudge’s behalf, Whistleblower Aid filed lawful, protected disclosures with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and with committees of jurisdiction in Congress concerning Twitter, Inc.
The disclosures were first reported by the Washington Post and CNN, which obtained them from a source in Congress.
Legal obligations prevent Mudge and Whistleblower Aid from discussing events during Mudge’s time at Twitter, except through lawful, properly authorized disclosures including subpoenas to testify which he would of course honor.
“Twitter has an outsized influence on the lives of hundreds of millions around the world, and it has fundamental obligations to its users and the government to provide a safe and secure platform,” said Libby Liu, CEO of Whistleblower Aid. “It has taken the courage of a high-level whistleblower with an impeccable reputation for ethics and integrity for law enforcement agencies, and the public, to learn the truth.”
Before joining Twitter, Mudge held senior positions at Google and Stripe, and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he received the highest award available to civilian, non-career employees.
Following a very public hack of Twitter by teenagers in July 2020, former CEO Jack Dorsey personally recruited Mudge to help address Twitter’s security problems and technological debt.
Beginning in December 2021, Mudge began the lawful disclosure process and exhausted internal channels before contacting law enforcement agencies. Mudge was terminated by Twitter in January 2022.
Whistleblowers are entitled to legal protection against retaliation under federal and state law and common law authorities including, but not limited to, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, and New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act. These laws provide causes of action for litigation in a federal court of competent jurisdiction for whistleblowers who experience post-employment retaliation for making lawful disclosures. Moreover, federal criminal law (18 U.S. Code § 1512(b)) establishes that any person who attempts to intimidate or retaliate against a witness who makes such lawful disclosures could be individually subject to criminal conviction and imprisonment.
John Tye, Whistleblower Aid’s Chief Disclosure Officer, said:
“Mudge is a hero, stepping forward at real personal risk to ensure that law enforcement agencies have the ground truth about what’s happening inside Twitter. The agencies should investigate these disclosures quickly, and if warranted by the evidence, bring enforcement actions.”
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Whistleblower Aid is a non-profit legal organization in Washington, D.C. supporting individuals who lawfully report government and corporate law breaking. It provides assistance to individuals in the United States and abroad seeking to disclose illegal conduct, including misconduct relating to government officials, securities fraud, sexual violence, and violations of tax, labor or environmental laws. In recent years Whistleblower Aid lawyers have represented Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and the Ukraine whistleblower whose disclosures led to the first impeachment of President Trump.
