On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady sentenced military whistleblower Daniel Hale to 45 months in prison for violating the Espionage Act. The Act was supposed to be a tool to use against spies, but his prosecution reflects a growing pattern of the Espionage Act instead being used to silence and villify whistleblowers who expose lies behind closed doors.

Can you help us get to Washington to stand with future whistleblowers, and help them inform the public about examples of corruption?

Washington has a long habit of rewarding institutional crime and shooting the messengers. Ellsberg, Binney, Manning, Assange, Snowden, Winner—and now Hale—each demonstrate a pattern spanning generations.

Each of those courageous public servants chose to inform the public about lies behind closed doors. They stand in sharp contrast from the officials—from each of the corporate political parties—who instead silenced them to serve their own institutions, and their careers, at the expense of both the public and our nation’s stated principles.

Hale is the latest in a long line of public servants who our nation will punish for doing the right thing. He noted in the court how ‘You had to kill part of your conscience to keep doing your job,’ and—like other whistleblowers—made a profound sacrifice to inform the public.

Informing the public often exposes we truth tellers to retaliation. But whatever the price, we’re proud to have stood against the establishment and to have supported whistleblowers in many settings. Can you stand with us before the end of this month?

One reason I’m running for Congress is because the powerful incumbent who represents my city in Washington has long deferred to executive secrecy. Transparency is a constitutional value that stands above politics. But politics can undermine it, nonetheless, as it has today.

Hale deserves a medal, not a prison sentence.

All whistleblowers, and the people of the United States, deserve policymakers in the mold of the late Sen. Mike Gravel (D-AK) willing to fulfill the oath of office by standing alongside them.

Can you join us today to help force long overdue transparency and accountability on Washington? We’re eager to do the job that our predecessors haven’t, but lacking the backing of either a political party or a corporate lobby, we’re entirely reliant on grassroots—your—support.

Thank you so much for your help!

Shahid