Because of great lawyering David Grush never has to say another thing and can never be silenced and there is a real possibility he doesn’t speak publicly on this again.

Charles McCullough and his team has cornered the government. As everyone knows McCullough is a former Intelligence Community Inspector General, has done an amazing job here because they know how the DOD works and they know how to apply maximum pressure for his client against the DOD.

I am lawyer who had a TS/SCI, I am very familiar with the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review. They have one job, and that’s classification of material that would impact national security.

Grush made the extraordinary claims internally and he then had a choice. If my client had an open whistleblower claim, I would not want my client to speak publicly because of the pending litigation. If he said anything inconsistent with his complaint it could hurt his litigation.

However, in this case (as opposed to my cases) the Office had two choices and given the extraordinary claims made by Grush.

The DOD could classify all he said as the extraordinary claims impact “national security” or they could clear the material knowing that clearance does not equal truth or an admission of any sort.

Given this choice the DOD had no choice but to clear the extraordinary claims so they could argue the claims are nonsense. For example, if the reverse engineering claim was classified because it impacted national security, it is a tacit admission that there’s something to the claims that impact national security and that really helps Grush’s claims and credibility.

Because the DOD declassified these claims he was free to spill them all and you have the litigation posture you have today- which is incredible for Grush because now you have Congress and the Public strapping down on these claims and the power of the government investigating those claims beyond the litigation which will hinge on the truth of Grush’s statements.

This is a classic Hobson choice- either legitimize his claims by classifying them, or face what they are facing now. Both are bad for the DOD. My team has put the government in this position before- and my experience is that the government clears when they have no practical other choice. I can explain my example if it helps although no where as exciting as this.

The takeaway is that Grush, never has to, and in fact if I was his lawyer I’d advise him to stop talking now as he’s already said all that needs to be said. He doesn’t have to say it over and over again. This is an educated guess, but this is why we should expect silence going forward- not because the government silenced him.

The only thing the DOD can do is drag him through the mud and they can’t do it. All of us that have viewed “very disturbing” classified material have PTSD and I challenge anyone to understand what it’s like to go through medical care without being able to explain what one’s trauma is. There no credible mud on this guy that we’ve seen so far. If I were the DOD this is the best defense.

The main point is because of this strategy, Grush doesn’t have to say another thing and Pandora’s box cannot be closed at this point.

We should all thank Grush for his bravery and his legal team for cornering the government. I wouldn’t expect him to say anything more personally because he’s said everything that is unclassified and there’s no reason for him to say it again.

Now it’s up to his team and people like you to give teeth to his public claims.