Jessalyn Radack to discuss whistleblowing and government surveillance Oct. 27 at Muhlenberg College
Radack, director of National Security & Human Rights at Expose Facts, will present the Woodrow Wilson Fellow Public Lecture at Muhlenberg College.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015 03:08 PM
Radack will examine the perception and reality of whistleblowers in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about government surveillance. Presented by the Center for Ethics in conjunction with the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Scholars committee, the “Whistleblowing and the Snowden Effect” lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27 in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum. The event is free and open to the public.
Radack will discuss how Edward Snowden’s revelations about government surveillance came during the most perilous time in U.S. history for whistleblowers. Whistleblowers are often risking their own freedom to reveal fraud and illegality within our government. Instead of being celebrated, most whistleblowers end up bankrupt and blacklisted.
Held in conjunction with Radack’s visit to campus, a screening of Academy Award-winning film "Citizenfour" will be followed by a faculty panel discussion. The film screening will be held at 6:45 p.m. on Oct. 21 in the Trumbower Hall Lecture Hall. Radack has served as the attorney for the whistleblowers who appear in the film. The screening is presented in conjunction with the media & communications department.
Radack is the director of National Security & Human Rights at Expose Facts. Her program focuses specifically on secrecy, surveillance, torture and discrimination. She has been at the forefront of the government’s unprecedented “war on whistleblowers,” which has also implicated journalists. Among her clients, she has represented seven national security and intelligence community employees who have been investigated, charged or prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly mishandling classified information, including Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou. She also represents clients bringing whistleblower retaliation complaints in federal court and various administrative bodies.
Previously, she served on the D.C. Bar Legal Ethics Committee and worked at the Justice Department for seven years, first as a trial attorney and later as a legal ethics advisor. Radack is author of “TRAITOR: The Whistleblower & the 'American Taliban'” and she received the "Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Award" in 2011; the "Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award" in 2012; and was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s "Leading Global Thinkers of 2013.” A graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School, Radack lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.
Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private, four-year residential college located in Allentown, Pa., approximately 90 miles west of New York City. With an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 2200 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, sciences, business, education and public health. A member of the Centennial Conference, Muhlenberg competes in 22 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
