SPeaking of history repeating itself....>WATERGATE!!!!! 2004!
Computer Reportedly Seized From Frist's Office
By Richard Powelson
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Saturday 24 January 2004
Democrats say their computers were infiltrated by GOP staffers.
WASHINGTON - Federal investigators reportedly have seized a staff computer in Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist's office in a probe to find Republican aides who improperly accessed Democrats'
memos on opposing judicial nominees.
Nick Smith, a spokesman for Frist, R-Tenn., would not confirm or deny Friday if an office computer or
hard drive was taken by investigators representing the office of the Senate Sergeant-At-Arms.
"We're not commenting on the issue while it's under investigation," Smith said.
The Boston Globe reported Thursday that federal experts studying any improper access of
Democratic senators' computer records had confiscated several computers or computer hard drives of
the Judiciary Committee and one in Frist's office. The article also identified a Frist staff member -
Manuel Miranda - as being under scrutiny for his computer use.
Smith in Frist's office confirmed that Miranda is a Frist employee but is on a leave of absence. Asked
if any of Frist's staff computers or computer servers had been seized, Smith said: "I cannot comment
on the details of the investigation."
Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in late November confirmed that the ongoing
probe has found Republican staff wrongdoing. One unidentified staff member was suspended with pay
pending the outcome of the investigation, Hatch said.
The office of the Senate Sergeant-At-Arms, which is using computer experts of the U.S. Secret
Service to investigate, expects to finish its analysis of who did what within three to four weeks, an office
spokesman said. The final report will be given to Hatch and the committee's senior Democrat, Patrick
Leahy of Vermont.
Tracy Schmaler, spokeswoman for the committee's Democrats, said the Democrats share Hatch's
outrage over the computer security violations. "This is unethical and immoral behavior that cannot and
should not be tolerated," she said.
Committee Democrats learned late last year that their computer access codes were not set up
properly and some Republican staffers knew about the glitch and took advantage of it for two years to
view and copy sensitive files relating to the Democratic opposition to some of President Bush's judicial
nominees.
Schmaler said Republicans could not justify improper access to restricted Democratic
correspondence that was mistakenly unprotected by passwords. Doing so, she said, would be like
"blaming the victim whose car was broken into by a burglar for leaving the trunk unlocked."
Frist, who has completed one year as Senate majority leader, often criticized Democrats last year for
repeatedly blocking several of Bush's judicial nominees.
But Leahy said Democrats are allowing more of Bush's nominees to be approved than Republicans
approved when Democrat Bill Clinton was president.
Leahy criticized the "cyber theft" of confidential Democratic memoranda.
"This invasion was perpetrated by Republican employees both on and off the committee," he said
without naming names. "Members of the Republican staff took things that did not belong to them and
passed them around and on to people outside of the Senate. This is no small mistake. It is a serious
breach of trust, morals, and possibly the rules and regulations governing the U.S. Senate."
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