The U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly dropped its long-running criminal investigation of a former Justice Department attorney who admitted playing a role in exposing the National Security Agency’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program. The attorney, Thomas Tamm, has admitted that he called the New York Times in 2005 to leak information about the secret program. Tamm appeared on Democracy Now! in 2009.

Thomas Tamm, attorney: “I have been in law enforcement my entire life. My family was in law enforcement. And I didn’t want to be participating in something that might be illegal. So I actually went up to the Hill to see if Congress — to try and find out whether Congress knew about what was going on. And when I was told and warned that it’s very dangerous to be a whistleblower and they would not confirm that Congress had been briefed is when I decided to call the New York Times.”