Labor Dept. Wants To Imprison Employees For Telling Press How Badly Things Are Going
Seems to be going well, given that we know about this.
It is, under normal circumstances, the Department of Labor’s job to protect American workers from management. In Trump’s America, however, it is the Department of Labor’s job to protect management from American workers.
As such, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s chief of staff, Jihun Han, sent out a memo this week to let DOL employees know that if they talk to the press about what a horrible mess everything is over there, that they could get in serious trouble. Legal trouble.
Generally speaking, federal employees are absolutely allowed to speak to the press about things going on in their Department, so long as it’s not a matter of national security. But it seems that way too many people have been talking to journalists about what an incredible trash fire the place is now that it’s been gutted, and feelings are being hurt.
It does not seem to have worked very well for them, because someone in their office sent the memo itself to ProPublica. Whoops!
[The memo] states that “individuals who disclose confidential information or engage in unauthorized communications with the media may face serious legal consequences.”
Among the ramifications, the memo states, are “potential criminal penalties, depending on the nature of the information and the applicable laws,” and “immediate disciplinary actions, up to and including termination.”
The guidance document went on to say that “any unauthorized communication with the media,” regardless of what information is shared or how it is shared, “will be treated as a serious offense.”
The memo listed laws, regulations and a departmental guide to explain its legal position. Among them was a regulation concerning civil servants’ ethical obligations and a law, the Freedom of Information Act, guaranteeing the public the right to inspect certain public records.
“This message will serve as your only warning,” the memo stated.
How very normal and not at all psychotic-sounding of them.
It seems like they are embarrassed, and they should be. Because if everything you are doing is so awful that one of your biggest worries is that your employees are going around telling God and everyone how very, very badly you are fucking up, if you have to send an email to every one of them, threatening them with actual prison time for doing so, things probably are not going all that well for you.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
It's always funny when people leak the memo that says "don't leak".
An environment of terror and paranoia is always a healthy working environment, right?