Thomas Tamm
| Thomas Tamm | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 |
| Education |
Brown University (1974) Georgetown University Law Center (1977) |
| Occupation | Attorney |
| Employer | Washington County, Maryland public defender |
| Known for | Whistleblowing at U.S. Department of Justice |
| Awards | Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize |
Thomas Tamm (born 1952) is a public defender in Washington County, Maryland. He formerly worked as an attorney in the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) 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. Although 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, the D.C. Office of Bar Counsel announced in January 2016 that it had brought disclinary charges against Tamm relating to those events. Despite some controversy with respect to politication 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.
The son of a former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, nephew of another former FBI assistant director who became a U.S. Court of Appeals judge for the District of Columbia Circuit (Edward Allen Tamm) and brother of another career FBI agent, Tamm attended Brown University and graduated in 1974.
After graduating from Georgetown Law School and admission to the bar, Tamm joined the state's attorney's office, and after gaining additional experience, joined the United States Department of Justice's Capitol Case Unit, where he litigated death penalty cases. He eventually joined the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, where he was liaison with the FISA court.
A New York Times article on December 16, 2005 exposing the warrantless NSA surveillance for the first time was based on his initial tip-offs. Reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau won a Pulitzer prize for that reporting in 2006.
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