(1) An employee shall not directly or indirectly use or attempt to use the employee's official authority or influence for the purpose of intimidating, threatening, coercing, commanding, influencing, or attempting to intimidate, threaten, coerce, command, or influence any individual for the purpose of interfering with the right of the individual to: (a) Disclose to the auditor (or representative thereof) or other public official, as defined in RCW
42.40.020, information concerning improper governmental action; or (b) identify rules warranting review or provide information to the rules review committee.
(2) Nothing in this section authorizes an individual to disclose information otherwise prohibited by law, except to the extent that information is necessary to substantiate the whistleblower complaint, in which case information may be disclosed to the auditor or public official, as defined in RCW
42.40.020, by the whistleblower for the limited purpose of providing information related to the complaint. Any information provided to the auditor or public official under the authority of this subsection may not be further disclosed.