The first report on the matter and a following story containing a non-denial denial that the WH Counsel's Office made use of the purloined information. This could get bigger before it goes away. _________________________ GOP Aides Implicated In Memo Downloads Democrats' Files Accessed and Leaked In Security Breach By Helen Dewar Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 5, 2004; Page A01 A three-month investigation by the Senate's top law enforcement officer found a systematic downloading of thousands of Democratic computer files by Republican staffers over the past few years as well as serious flaws in the chamber's computer security system. The report released yesterday by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William H. Pickle noted that two former Senate GOP staff members -- including the Republicans' top aide on judicial nomination strategy -- were primarily responsible for accessing and leaking computer memos on Democratic plans for blocking some of President Bush's judicial nominations. Pickle made no recommendations about whether to pursue criminal prosecutions in the case, but he cited several federal laws that might be considered, including statutes involving false statements and receipt of stolen property. Pickle and his investigators said forensics analyses indicated that 4,670 files had been downloaded between November 2001 and spring 2003 by one of the aides -- "the majority of which appeared to be from folders belonging to Democratic staff" on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said at least 100 of his computer files were also accessed by the GOP aides. The report identified the two former staffers as Jason Lundell, a nominations clerk who originally accessed the files, and Manuel Miranda, a more senior staff member and later the top aide to Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on judicial nominations. Miranda, the report said, advised Lundell and was said by other aides to have been implicated in leaking the documents to friendly journalists or other parties outside the Senate. Miranda had previously denied leaking the materials. Both men left their Senate jobs during the investigation. The report highlights a matter that exacerbated tensions on the Judiciary Committee, which was already been bitterly divided over the Democrats' tactics in blocking Bush's most conservative nominees for the federal appeals court bench. Some Republicans on the committee -- and many conservative groups on the outside -- said the Senate should have probed the contents of the memos, which they contended demonstrated the collusion between Democrats and liberal advocacy groups, rather than how the memos ended up in Republican hands. But Pickle's report dealt only with how the memos were accessed and leaked, not with their substance. In addition to faulting the two aides, Pickle's report noted the "systemic flaws" in the Senate Judiciary Committee's computer security practices and recommended steps to improve them. But the report said the flaws did not contribute to the downloading and dissemination of the Democratic files by the two GOP aides. Although some information about the incident had been reported previously, Pickle's 60-page report was the most exhaustive and authoritative summary to be issued so far. Several Democrats called for the appointment of a special counsel to look into possible violations of federal law. "It is my view and the view of a few others that the only way to get to the bottom of this is a special counsel with full investigative powers," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. The Judiciary Committee plans to meet next week to decide what, if any, further steps to take. Democrats noted that Pickle does not have subpoena powers and said further investigation is needed into whether other people were involved, including White House and Justice Department officials and judicial nominees. In remarks before the release of the report, both at a committee meeting and a news conference, Hatch and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the panel's ranking Democrat, praised the report and condemned the two aides' actions. "Regardless of whether any criminal law was broken, the improper access was wrong and unjustifiable," Hatch said. "It will go down as a sad chapter in the Senate." "It was wrongdoing by calculation and stealth, not by inadvertence or mistake, and we know it was intentional, repeated, longstanding and . . . systematic and malicious," Leahy said. "It was carried out surreptitiously, because those who did it knew it was wrong." According to Pickle's report, Lundell learned how to access the files by watching a systems administrator work on his computer. Miranda guided Lundell in his accessing endeavors, the report said. In addition, the probe found "a substantial amount of circumstantial evidence implicating him," the report said. In a statement e-mailed to reporters, Miranda said the report "fails to find any criminal hacking or credible suggestion of criminal acts," and called on Hatch to investigate the substance of the Democratic memos. He accused Pickle of having "acted improperly toward me from the first day I met with the investigators." The probe was prompted late last year after 14 memos written by staffers working for Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) turned up in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times and a conservative Web site. The memos discussed the Democrats' nominations strategy, often in bluntly political terms, including a suggestion that action on a Michigan nominee be held up because of a pending affirmative action case. Hatch, expressing outrage at the GOP staffers' infiltration of Democratic files, conducted an inquiry of his own and then triggered the sergeant-at-arms probe, for which Pickle used Secret Service agents and General Dynamics Corp. computer experts to trace the Democratic documents. Pickle conducted about 160 interviews and seized the hard drives and backup tapes of several Senate computers, officials said. _____________________ 4 senators seeking answers on hacking By Lyle Denniston Senators Seeking Answer on Hacking, Boston Globe Staff, 3/3/2004 WASHINGTON -- Four Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are pressing the Bush administration to disclose any role government officials may have had in secret snooping by Republican aides on the computer files of Democratic committee members. In the latest escalation of bitter fights over nominations to federal courts, four of the nine committee Democrats sent letters to the White House and the Justice Department last week asking if administration officials were "involved in or aware of" the intrusion on Democrats' files, or had received any information about them. The letters were signed by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee's top Democrat, and by Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Charles E. Schumer of New York, and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois. "We believe," the senators wrote, "that the administration's `by whatever means necessary' approach to judicial nominations . . . greatly contributed to the atmosphere in which Republicans committed these acts." The Democrats said that the "theft by Republican staff of internal Democratic computer files" involved thousands of files, retrieved "from at least 2001 into 2003." They noted that the Senate sergeant-at-arms is investigating. In a letter to Albert R. Gonzales, counsel to President Bush, the senators said "questions arise as to whether anyone at the White House was involved or aware of these activities or made privy to information obtained through this course of conduct." "We have yet to hear you or the president condemn this activity," the letter said. The lawmakers asked for a "candid and thorough response" to specific questions, ranging from any direct role or information about the incident, to possible contacts with groups that are supporting President Bush's judicial nominees -- groups the senators said had apparently received information from the pilfered files. Gonzales, replying yesterday in a letter to Leahy, said he was aware of no "credible allegation" of White House involvement in the incident, so no investigation has been made. He said he "respectfully, but categorically, reject the statement in your letter" that administration actions contributed to the atmosphere around the files controversy. The president's lawyer also said that the White House had not commented on the controversy up to now because "we view this as a Senate matter." In the separate letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking the same questions put to the White House. A Justice Department spokesman, John Nowacki, said "we will review the letter."
Josh Marshall connects some of the dots... ___________________ As we've noted here at TPM a few times now, one of the questions coming out of the investigation into those pilfered Democratic Judiciary Committee staff memos is whether the GOP staffers in question shared the memos with colleagues at the Justice Department or the White House. We've now looked over the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms report on the matter issued last week. And it seems clear that his investigators were prevented from finding out whether or not this happened because of their lack of subpoena and other standard law enforcement powers. For instance, if you look at pages 21-22 of the report (we've uploaded these sections to the TPM Document Collection), you see that Jason Lundell -- the little gizmocrat who first discovered he could get access to the memos -- was also responsible for "speaking with the Department of Justice Legislative Affairs and Legal Policy representatives." So he worked in a liaison capacity with the people who run the judicial appointments at Justice. It turns out there's a footnote to that sentence I just quoted. And when you go to the bottom of the page you see that footnote reads: "As of the time this report is being completed, the Department of Justice still has under consideration investigators' request to interview the employee who Mr. Lundell reports having contacts with." Now, they spent more than a couple days working on this report. So I think that's gentle and generous way of saying that the Justice Department declined to make this person available for an interview. Then if you hop down to pages 48-49, you'll see that in his final interview with investigators, Manuel Miranda -- the guy at the center of all this -- for the first time mentioned that a backup disk of the documents had just come into his possession and that he got it from "a friend of his from outside the Senate" who had made the backup for him. This friend had just recently reminded him that the backup existed. Now, here's the key. The report says Miranda "declined to give investigators the name of the friend stating that he did not want to prolong the investigation. He also refused to give investigators the names of his White House legislative contacts for the same reason." I bet Martha Stewart wishes she'd known about this right of non-prolongation, don't you? In any case, all humor aside, it seems pretty clear that the Senate investigators found possible trails leading to both the White House and the Justice Department. But they were blocked from pursuing them. That doesn't mean that anything untoward happened, only that the Senate investigators lacked the standard array of investigative tools available to law enforcement investigators. So we just don't know whether Miranda, Lundell or possibly others shared the memos with people at Justice or the White House. Because in any meaningful sense, the question simply hasn't been investigated. -- Josh Marshall
Holy ****! This positively reeks. Now I'm waiting for the "basso spin" on this topic... or else just ignoring the issue altogether because there is no rational explanation as to why this isn't investigated to the fullest extent possible. Who was this guy reporting to?? They downloaded thousands of files and over a hundred files from Republican Senator Hatch. Unbelievable. edit: Thanks, rimrocker. This administration is really going down the rabbit hole.
Republican staffers steal information on tactics from Democratic rivals, then when pressed, refuse to give up the identities of any cohorts inside the White House administration. White House refuses to comment, states "we'll look into it later"... why does this sound so familiar?
We cannot run the risk of investigating this political espionage lest it become a political witchhunt.
Geez, I had almost forgotten all about this entire issue. It's just not being covered in the media. When one party steals information from the other party in an election year, you'd think that was a story. Wow.
This along with the Plame affair are two pretty big pieces in the puzzle of GOP corruption, and possibly criminal activity.
Oh dear. To add to this, the Moonie Wash Times thinks that the leaks of the names actually harm Dems chances of criminal referrals and prosecution. _________________ Pickle: New leak probe GOP suspects that Thursday’s blunder was intentional By Alexander Bolton, The Hill Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle is to investigate whether a confidential report on leaked Democratic memorandums was itself improperly leaked, potentially damaging the careers of more than 20 Senate staffers. Enraged Republicans suspect the unredacted version — intended only for senators’ eyes — was given to the press accidentally on purpose. Pickle’s agreement to investigate the latest ironic twist came as Democrats secured a key defection from Republican ranks on the Judiciary Committee that will likely allow them to refer the memo controversy for a criminal investigation. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a panel member who has been outspoken in criticizing the conduct of the GOP aides who obtained Democratic computer files, said the matter should “automatically go to a professional prosecutor.” “If they reject it, that’s fine,” Graham said. Graham’s stance could give the Democrats a 10-9 majority in the Judiciary Committee vote on whether to send Pickle’s report to a prosecutor. Democrats have demanded a criminal investigation, but many committee Republicans want the Secret Service to decide whether to refer the matter for criminal prosecution. Unless Republicans can persuade a Democrat to switch, Graham would give Democrats enough votes to prevail. Pickle, who has supervised the Senate investigation to date, now has another investigation to conduct. Yesterday, he agreed in a telephone conversation with Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to look into an error that made the more sensitive of two versions of the report public. Sessions sent a letter to Pickle demanding a full explanation of how the media obtained the sensitive file. As a result, the sergeant at arms is facing the oddly postmodern task of investigating a Senate leak of a report on the investigation of a Senate leak. “Some may say that this is just a mistake and it must be forgotten, but I don’t think so,” Sessions wrote in his letter. “I believe it was an error of major proportions and it should not be taken lightly.” When asked if he thought the leak was intentional, Sessions said, “I don’t have any evidence of that.” Specifically Sessions has demanded: • A full explanation of how the unredacted report was circulated to the press. • The names of the individuals responsible for the release. • What actions will be taken against them. • What plans the sergeant at arms has to ensure that this situation does not occur again. Several Republican Senators on the Judiciary Committee, including Arlen Specter (Pa.), John Cornyn (Texas) and Graham, supported Sessions’s call for an investigation. The press obtained the report hours after lawmakers had voted Thursday to keep it confidential. After disagreeing on how to proceed, lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee voted in executive session to release a redacted version of Pickle’s report and allow only panel members and select staff access to the full version. Later that day, stunned lawmakers and staff discovered that journalists had received the unredacted version after a joint press conference held by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the top Republican and Democrat on Judiciary. In a joint statement that day, Hatch and Leahy said: “Due to an administrative error, the unredacted version of the Senate Sergeant At Arms Report was mistakenly released to the media Thursday afternoon. There was no intention on anyone’s part to release this version at this time.” Cornyn called the release of the confidential report “inexcusable.” “I’d like to find out what happened,” he said. Cornyn echoed a concern held by several staffers that innocent aides who cooperated with the Pickle investigation will be associated with the apparent improprieties of the two GOP aides implicated in the report. Cornyn predicted that the unredacted version of the report would be put on the Internet and widely disseminated. Some staffers fear their careers could be compromised if future Google searches link them in future years to the Senate memo controversy. Specter said Sessions’s request for an inquiry was fair. “The Senate committee instructed to keep the report redacted,” he said. “The unredacted report [contradicts] committee instructions.” Specter, widely perceived as a centrist, said he did not know whether he would vote tomorrow to refer the Pickle report to a prosecutor for possible criminal investigation.
Rimrocker, let's keep this in perpsective. This stealing of Democratic files, the Plame CIA outing, Niger uranium forgery and the wmd intelligence failures etc. are not an Arkansas business deal or lying about a blow job under oath. So who cares?
Could it be that the Bush administration has too many scandals? There is the fact that they change science and factual findings to fit their own agenda. They have members of the administration with top security clearance leaking classified information while we have troops in the field and are fighting a war on terrorism. We have the bogus intel investigation We have the Republicans downloading Democratic memos quiet possibly illeagally. There is the fact that they were wrong and lied about the whole Iraq war WMD etc. Is it possible that there are so many to choose from that not enough attention will be paid to any of them? Nixon had Watergate and people focussed on that and it was a big issue that forced him to resign. If one of these issues could be focussed on and given the proper media attention it would be devastating to the administration. Maybe once the people were focussed on one of these newsworthy scandals then add another one to the list, until finally they are all out there. Right now there are just so many to pick from that none of them will be examined as much as it should be.
I saw that. I'm waiting for the chorus of outrage from Republicans at this "slander" of the Administration. I love it. The truth hurts, but it can set you free.
The outrage has started. I saw George Pataki talking about it. Scarborough was talking about it, and the Bush team issued a statement saying they expect Kerry to apologize. The whole quote was hilarious. I love that it was caught on the record, and Kerry shouldn't apologize at all.
Upon further reflection, this was a brilliant political move... 1. No solid Kerry supporter is going to wake up and say "Oh my heavens, I must vote for W now." 2. If some quesy Kerry supporters wake up and say that, it's still early and Kerry has time to woo them back. 3. This "accident" came just after Kerry's meeting with Dean. My guess is that the words brought a grin to the good Doctor and his "angry" supporters. 4. Most importantly, this puts the issue out there in a way that it hasn't been before. After the initial sound and fury from the Right, articles and stories and commentary will start to trickle out: "Is Kerry Right, Does this Administration Not Tell The Truth" or "Kerry Calls Bush Crooked: We Look at the Facts to See if it's True." Kerry just gave glasses to a bunch of folks... it may take awhile to put them on, but when they do, many will see the Emperor revealed in all his naked glory. It also reveals the Right for what they really are... classic bullies. They don't mind throwing milk in people's faces on a regular basis, but when someone stands up and knocks 'em down, they hide behind the skirts of propriety and decorum. Wusses. I was never sold on Kerry and at least until February or so, didn't think he had a chance and didn't want him to really have a chance. However, he's come out of the gate strong and is making some good moves. He's like one of those Harry Potter Aurors who use the Dark Arts against evil. I'm liking this guy more and more.
