Probe finds ex-clerks on Hatch panel hacked files
By Christopher Smith
The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON -- A Utah clerk on Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch's Judiciary Committee staff secretly combed the confidential computer files of Democrats "on an almost daily basis," a Senate investigation has concluded.
In a report released Thursday, the Senate Sergeant At Arms (SAA) found that Nominations Unit clerk Jason Lundell covertly gathered 4,670 files from the committee's shared computer server, after getting networkwide access by watching a technical administrator work on his computer and copying his moves. Lundell then relayed information on Democratic strategies for blocking judicial nominees to his superiors, the report said.
The investigation also found "significant security vulnerabilities" existed in the computer network, caused by the administrator's "inexperience, lack of training and oversight."
Although the committee voted to release only a version of the report with names of interviewees deleted, committee staff inadvertently gave all reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference copies of the full report, identifying Lundell as the primary perpetrator.
Manuel Miranda, another former Hatch staffer who resigned as an aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist last month, acknowledged he accessed and read "two or three" Democratic files. The SAA report says there is "circumstantial evidence" implicating Miranda as the Senate employee who gave the confidential documents to an activist, who allegedly leaked them to the news media.
Although Miranda denied to investigators that he solicited Lundell for poached documents while he worked for Frist, the report includes March 2003 e-mails in which Miranda asked Lundell to "undertake a discreet mission" to send copies of the Democrats' files to the Committee for Justice so the conservative activist group could "build relationships with the press."
"Of course I would be happy to assist in this covert action," Lundell replied. "The question is: exactly how much should I provide? You know we have loads on[sic] information."
Thursday night, Miranda discounted the SAA's conclusion that circumstantial evidence pointed to him as the leaker, and the potential for prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
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"The American people will say, 'So what?' " said Miranda. "It shows the report is falsely premised on the view these documents are confidential and privileged."
Lundell had joined Hatch's judiciary committee staff in 2001 and colleagues say his passion for working in criminal justice was fueled in part by the October 2002 murder of his mother, Brenda Lee Lundell, at her home in Spanish Fork.
Now attending graduate school in Texas, Lundell was first placed on leave by Hatch in November when he acknowledged accessing the files; he was subsequently fired.
Although Lundell declined to comment, his attorney said he has cooperated fully with investigators and believes he committed no crime.
"There was no hacking here, no passwords were violated and the fact that a relatively inexperienced guy like my client could do this shows the state of security the committee had," said lawyer Robert Driscoll of Washington. "That isn't to say what went on here is right but he is upset by the whole situation and if he had it to do over again, this isn't the way it would have gone."
Hatch, who revealed that the "two misguided staffers" also had secretly downloaded and shared 169 of the senator's own confidential files, said he believes the committee's bitter partisan fight over judicial nominees may have motivated the former employees, "one of whom seemed to be under the influence of the other."
"But I don't care how bad it got, and it got bad, this is not justified," Hatch said. "I don't see how anybody with ethical standards can justify it."
The release of the report allowed Hatch to get Democrats to relent on blocking some nominees as the committee favorably reported 12 of President Bush's judicial candidates to the floor for confirmation. But the "memogate" scandal is not over; Democrats will call next week for opening a federal criminal investigation, possibly by a special counsel.
"It is not difficult to conclude that this was criminal behavior," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat.
Added Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.: "Eventually, when we get some of the blanks filled in, we will also need a special prosecutor to determine who should be prosecuted and for what." |
