
By Hannah Hess and Matthew FlemingPosted at 3:05 p.m. on Oct. 2
A Secret Service official’s allegedly deliberate decision to embarrass Rep. Jason Chaffetz could “give pause” to other lawmakers who have applied for federal jobs, cautioned former House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
The inappropriate intrusion into Privacy Act-protected information, acknowledged in a report by the agency’s inspector general, could have a chilling effect, Sensenbrenner told CQ Roll Call Thursday — and he thinks someone “should be fired over it.”
Spying on the phones and electronic devices of elected officials has stoked concern in Congress. Even Sensenbrenner, the lead author of the 2002 Patriot Act, has protested lax oversight of the National Security Agency’s activities. But the disturbing leak to two media outlets of Chaffetz’s rejected application for a Secret Service job and the particulars surrounding it raised further alarm about privacy.
“Those responsible need to be held accountable, because behavior like this threatens the very nature of independent oversight of law enforcement,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, said Thursday.
Stakes in the monthslong conflict between Congress and the Secret Service went even higher Friday, after agency Director Joseph P. Clancy revised his account of what he knew and when he knew it, disclosing he had knowledge that private information about the Utah Republican was circulating before it was published.
The controversy started on March 24. Eighteen minutes after Chaffetz convened a House Oversight and Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing titled, “Holding the Protectors Accountable,” a senior Secret Service agent queried the chairman’s name in the agency’s electronic database. As Chaffetz blasted Clancy for an “infuriating” lack of knowledge about an alleged mishap by two agents, the internal search returned Chaffetz’s September 2003 application.
By the end of the day, seven Secret Service employees had accessed the record, which showed Chaffetz had not been hired because “better qualified applicants existed.” A screenshot of the application, including Chaffetz’s Social Security number and birth date, was embedded in one email chain. But the sensitive data was not include in “a number of other emails,” according to the report.
“It’s outrageous,” said Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has called out the Secret Service, Capitol Police and U.S. Park Police for their lack of clear responsibility for investigating breaches of Washington’s airspace security. Johnson has also teamed up with Grassley to confront the Justice Department about its investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s email server.
https://www3.blogs.rollcall.com/hill-blotter/secret-service-targeting-of-chaffetz-alarms-lawmakers/?dcz=