“It’s scary to think about all the possible dangers in having your personal information exposed”.
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Mr. Clancy said he did not learn of the effort to access the congressman’s file while he was testifying before the committee until a week later on April 1. “I remain undeterred in conducting proper and rigorous oversight”.
Later, in a short interview with NBC News, the congressman reiterated how chilling the report was.
Lowery, who is in charge of training, told the inspector general he did not direct anyone to release information about Chaffetz and “believed it would have been inappropriate to do so”, the report said. A few forwarded the information to others.
According to a press release from the Office of the Inspector General, “The OIG identified 18 supervisors – including the Acting Chief of Staff and the Deputy Director – who knew or should have known that Chairman Chaffetz’ personal information was being accessed”.
Before the investigation, 45 agency employees accessed the file and shared it with almost every level of the service, including employees in field offices as far away as Sacramento, Charlotte and Dallas.
Prior to leaking Chaffetz’s application, the congressman grilled Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy March 24 over the agency’s inability to quickly secure the scene of a suspicious package in Washington, D.C.
The inspector general’s report said Clancy was not made aware of the accessing of Chaffetz’s information until shortly before they were reported by news media.
Only four of the inquiries could reasonably be considered justified, it says.
“I am confident that U.S. Secret Service Director Joe Clancy will take appropriate action to hold accountable those who violated any laws or the policies of this department”, Johnson said.
“This episode reflects extremely poor judgment and a lack of care on the part of a number of Secret Service employees”.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued an apology to Chaffetz on Wednesday – his second since April – and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
One official told The Post that the material included a parody poster that pictured Chaffetz leading a hearing on the Secret Service from his congressional dais, with the headline, “Got BQA from the Service in 2003”.
“It’s intimidating”, Chaffetz said of the ordeal, the network reported. At the March 24 hearing, he said he was “infuriated” that he was not alerted by his senior management to an incident earlier that month in which two senior supervisors drove onto the White House complex after a night of drinking and crossed through an active bomb-investigation scene. “The unauthorized access and distribution of my personal information crossed that line”.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, chairman of the committee’s panel on government operations, said the report revealed “woeful abuse of power by a government agency tasked with one of the most important jobs in the country: protecting our nation’s president”.
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Lowery declined to comment though a Secret Service spokesman.
