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Nuclear lab whistle-blower beat up before testifyingFrom Brian Todd YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- A Los Alamos National Laboratory whistle-blower who was set to testify before Congress was severely beaten in an attempt to silence him, his wife and lawyer said. Tommy Hook, 52, was set to testify before a House Committee about financial mismanagement at the nation's premiere nuclear lab in New Mexico. He was severely beaten early Sunday morning, enough to send him into intensive care at a local hospital. Hook was assaulted around 2 a.m. in the parking lot of a Santa Fe strip club. Susan Hook said he had gone after a call from an informant who asked to meet him there but didn't show up. She believes it was a ruse by the assailants. Hook's lawyer Robert Rothstein said his client stayed inside the club for an hour, looking for the informant, then left. A lab official said the longtime auditor at the lab had also reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in waste and procurement fraud in the past that led to the firing and prosecution of two employees. Santa Fe, New Mexico, police said they believe more than one person was involved. Hook, Susan Hook and Rothstein said Tommy Hook was attacked by a group of men. The former auditor spoke to police but his wife said communicating is a struggle for him. "He has to try to repeat and repeat, so you can understand what he is trying to tell you," Susan Hook said. She said the brutal beating was part of ongoing intimidation for Hook's reporting of mismanagement. Susan Hook said his assailants warned him: "They kept telling him he needed to start keeping his mouth shut. And if he knew what was good for him, he'd start keeping his mouth shut," she said. Hook has a lawsuit pending against the University of California, which oversees Los Alamos, charging whistle-blower retaliation. When asked if anyone at the lab could have been involved, lab spokesman Kevin Roark said: "We want to know who did it and why as much as anyone does. ... And to that end we will cooperate and participate in the investigation to every extent appropriate." A congressional staffer involved in the investigation of Los Alamos characterizes problems at the lab as "almost intractable," going beyond erratic management and sloppy habits. The congressman spearheading the investigation into the lab would not specify what Hook was going to tell the panel. "I can't get into all the testimony at this time. But we've been meeting with him for some period of time. And he had some allegations that we thought were significant enough and serious enough that we wanted him to testify in Congress," said Rep. Edward Whitfield, R-Kentucky, member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Los Alamos officials, as well, wouldn't comment on the congressional investigation. A Los Alamos official said Hook is a valued employee and has whistle-blower protection at the lab. 
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