Secret Service official suggested a leak to embarrass Rep. Chaffetz

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: LA Times

Scores of U.S. Secret Service employees improperly accessed the decade-old, unsuccessful job application of a congressman who was investigating scandals inside the agency, a new government report said Wednesday. An assistant director suggested leaking embarrassing information to retaliate against Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) chairman of the House oversight committee.

The actions by the employees could represent criminal violations under the U.S. Privacy Act, said the report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, John Roth. "It doesn't take a lawyer explaining the nuances of the Privacy Act to know that the conduct that occurred here — by dozens of agents in every part of the agency — was wrong," the report said.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson personally apologized to Chaffetz again Wednesday, the congressman told The Associated Press in an interview on Capitol Hill. Johnson did not disclose whether any employees had been punished. "It's intimidating," Chaffetz said. "It's what it was supposed to be."

Johnson said in a statement Wednesday that "those responsible should be held accountable" but did not provide further details.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-secret-service-chaffetz-20150930-story.html

[24601]

1. Sigh.... My disclosure is that I'm a civil servant. The Secret Service is supposed to

be one of our best and this is inexcusable.

When we screw up, we owe our public an acknowledgement of our errors, a promise to do better, and the follow-through to fix the problems.

Targeting a member of Congress, any member of Congress regardless of party, should be a termination offense. I don't know if it is, but it should be. Never mind it was a Member of Congress - targeting any citizen like this should be grounds for termination

[Ichigo Kurosaki]

2. Don't forget prosecution and jail time. [nt]

[Snow Leopard]

3. Wow!

Heads better roll on this. I am not hopeful though.

[Calista241]

4. Chaffetz may be a dick

But in this case he was doing his job. A job we should expect anyone, Democrat or Republican, to do and do properly.

The Secret Service has been a clusterfuck of an organization lately. This kind of behavior on their part is flat out unacceptable.

[lsewpershad]

5. What job is that..

Abusing a witness and lying about planned parenthood??? Can we hold some of these clowns accountable also? Guess the only way is to vote against them.

[Calista241]

7. The job of legitimate congressional government oversight

Which the Secret Service sorely needed.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Adding a link to the Washington Post:

Secret Service official wanted to embarrass congressman

If true, not acceptable.

Politics

By Carol D. Leonnig and Jerry Markon September 30 at 7:57 PM 

An assistant director of the Secret Service urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman ­critical of the service should be made public, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday.

“Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,” Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an e-mail to a fellow director on March 31, commenting on an internal file that was being widely circulated inside the service. “Just to be fair.”

Two days later, a news Web site reported that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had applied to be a Secret Service agent in 2003 and been rejected. ... That information was part of a Chaffetz personnel file stored in a restricted Secret Service database and required by law to be kept private.
....

Staff members in the most senior headquarters offices, the president’s protective detail, the public affairs office, the office of investigations, and field offices in Sacramento, Charlotte, Dallas and elsewhere accessed Chaffetz’s file — and many acknowledged sharing it widely, according to the report. The day after the March 24 hearing, one agent who had been sent to New York for the visit of the president of Afghanistan recalled that nearly all of the 70 agents at a briefing were discussing it. ... All told, 18 supervisors, including assistant directors, the deputy director and even Clancy’s chief of staff knew the information was being widely shared through agency offices, the report said.

They're up to about 4,000 comments already. Here's one:

WEWard3
10:41 AM EDT

As a Fed who has taken that oath (or it's military variant) multiple times in my life, its to "Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution of the United States from ALL enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC". Emphasis added. The Constitution states that is the established for the betterment of our society, our (societal) freedom, and our personal freedoms.

I don't care if it's an R, D, I, C, S, or W behind the name of an elected representative, they are still THE PEOPLES representative (bought and paid for by some company or special interest, yeah, sure, but still....). As a Civil Servant myself, I find this behavior and culture deplorable, and I for one am deeply resentful of the SS doing this, because it will ultimately make our citizens think ALL of us are like this, when that's nothing like the truth in my experience. I especially hate that they're doing this to a group that already wants to demonize all of the hard working folks like my team and workmates, trying to do the best we can for our country.