Secret Service Retaliates Against GOP Oversight Chairman

Obama once talked about rewarding friends and punishing enemies. This now seems to be the governing philosophy of the Obama Secret Service, which is reeling from scandals that suggest this president and countless other Americans who depend on the agency are at risk.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In this capacity, he has raised questions about the performance of the Secret Service, while highlighting potential security breaches that could have serious ramifications.

Apparently, the day after a particularly critical congressional hearing on the Secret Service, an assistant director for the Secret Service pushed to have information contained in a personnel file on Chaffetz publicly released, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General report.

That’s a problem, because the information was stored in a restricted database and was required by law to be kept private. Sure enough, the private personnel information was breached in myriad ways, including, evidently, through a leak to The Daily Beast and to The Washington Post. The Daily Beast report is awful journalism and is oblivious to the lawlessness of the leak it peddled without question.

Chaffetz had, at one time, applied for a position with the Secret Service, but was rejected. It was during a March 24 House hearing that Chaffetz unloaded on the agency for “its series of security gaffes and misconduct,” as it is explained in a report by the Washington Post.

The entire Inspector General’s report is available here. It reads in part as follows: "We have substantially completed our review of the allegation and have determined that a Secret Service database containing sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) pertaining to Congressman Jason Chaffetz, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, was accessed on approximately 60 occasions by Secret Service employees.

"We have concluded that a vast majority of those who had accessed the information did so in violation of the Privacy Act, as well as Secret Service and DHS policy. Additionally, we identified one individual who acknowledged disclosing information protected by the Privacy Act to an outside source.

However because the number of individuals with access to this information was so great, we were unable to identify others who may have disclosed protected information to third parties."

An aggressive prosecutor could bring 60 criminal charges for each time Chaffetz’s privacy was violated by the Secret Service.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secret Service Director Joe Clancy have both apologized to Chaffetz for the incident. Apparently, those apologies included a lie or two. Just today it is reported that Clancy is trying to correct previously false statements about when and what he knew about the leaks.

Who will be held responsible for this attack on Chaffetz? If a powerful congressional chairman isn’t protected from Obama administration retaliation, what about everyday Americans!

Will the Obama Justice Department take time away from its anti-local cop obsessions and criminally prosecute any of the Secret Service thugs, including at least 18 supervisors, who violated Chaffetz’s privacy?

You probably already know what JW thinks. We are conducting our own investigation of this scandal and will see what other crimes are to be found in yet another compromised federal law enforcement agency.

Tom Fitton is the president of Judicial Watch. He is a nationally recognized expert on government corruption. A former talk radio and television host and analyst, Tom is well known across the country as a national spokesperson for the conservative cause. He has been quoted in Time, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and most every other major newspaper in the country. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.