I doubt anyone in the fedgov will really care, and I'm not taking a position on the merits, but I question whether this is actually a whistleblower report. The report cites 50 U.S.C. § 3033(K)(5)(A) and says that it is a report of "A serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of law or Executive order." But that is not the entirety of the definition of "urgent concern" under § 3033(K)(5)(G). Rather, the full definition reads:
(G) In this paragraph, the term "urgent concern" means any of the following:
(i) A serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of law or Executive order, or deficiency relating to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity within the responsibility and authority of the Director of National Intelligence involving classified information, but does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters.
(ii) A false statement to Congress, or a willful withholding from Congress, on an issue of material fact relating to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity.
(iii) An action, including a personnel action described in section 2302(a)(2)(A) of title 5, constituting reprisal or threat of reprisal prohibited under subsection (g)(3)(B) of this section in response to an employee's reporting an urgent concern in accordance with this paragraph.
My reading of this definition, which is bolstered by subsection (ii), is that the phase "relating to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity within the responsibility and authority of the Director of National Intelligence involving classified information" applies to everything preceding that phrase. Thus, the "problem, abuse, violation of law or Executive order" must be one that relates to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity. I question whether an allegation that the president was soliciting election support or election interference from a foreign county is something that relates to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity. I ran some searches, but I don't see any caselaw interpreting this statute.
There might be some other more general whistleblower law that may also apply, but it would be incongruous for a statute that deals entirely with national intelligence and is in a chapter of the US Code dealing entirely with national intelligence would contain a reporting mechanism that would allow the reporting of any sort of "problem, abuse, violation of law or Executive order" to the Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community.
