Lawmakers Angry Over Secret Service Targeting of Chaffetz

The apparently deliberate leaking of a lawmaker’s private application to the Secret Service in order to stymie his probe of the agency is rocketing through Capitol Hill, shaking up lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Roll Call reports.

The effort to embarrass Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who is now a candidate to become Speaker of the House of Representatives, has made a lot of lawmakers nervous about their own former applications to various agencies. The information is protected under the federal Privacy Act.
Former House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said the leaking was definitely a firing offense, Roll Call reported.

“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.

The controversy started on March 24. Records show that 18 minutes after Chaffetz convened a House Oversight and Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing titled, “Holding the Protectors Accountable,” a top Secret Service agent put Chaffetz’s name in the agency’s electronic database. The search returned Chaffetz’s September 2003 application.

In a single day, seven agents 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 the breach, according to Roll Call. 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.