The Secret Service is facing another potential scandal — or, at least, another embarrassment. On Wednesday, it became public knowledge that agents accessed the personnel file of one of the House Republicans, according to New York magazine.
The Republican in question is Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the very man who was in charge of investigating the Secret Service. Not only did agents access the file, they may have done so with the intention of using the information they found.
"Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out," said Edward Lowery, the assistant director of the Secret Service, in an email dated March 31, according to the Washington Post. Just days later, an article appeared in The Daily Beast that said Chaffetz applied to the Secret Service in 2003. He was not offered a job.
Approximately 45 Secret Service agents looked at the congressman's file, which is supposed to be private.
"The unauthorized access and distribution of my personal information crossed that line. It was a tactic designed to intimidate and embarrass me and, frankly, it is intimidating. It's scary to think about all the possible dangers in having your personal information exposed," said Chaffetz in a statement, reported New York magazine.
Department of Homeland Security inspector general John Roth conducted an investigation to see who leaked the information, but his investigation was inconclusive, according to the New York Times.
"The disclosure was widespread, and recipients of the information likely numbered in the hundreds. Those agents we interviewed acknowledged freely sharing it with others in the Secret Service, often contemporaneously with accessing the information," said the official report.
