On Sept. 30, ICIG Michael Atkinson issued a news release acknowledging that, under the policy existing when he received this complaint, he could not have deemed it credible and reported it to the director of national intelligence. Instead, he admitted, he processed the complaint under a policy allowing second-hand information — a policy that he did not establish until after he received that complaint.

either Atkinson had the wrong policy all along, which he only decided to change in response to this complaint, or he had the right policy all along, which he ignored for this whistleblower and changed only after explosive congressional and media attention. Neither of these is acceptable.