WASHINGTON – October 2, 2015 (UPI/Gephardt Daily) – Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is planning to run for the post of House speaker, according to Politico.
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will take on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the post. McCarthy is the current favorite to replace outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Chaffetz is launching a campaign just days before the Oct. 8 leadership elections for the House GOP Conference. The date for a floor vote to pick the next speaker has not been set yet.
Chaffetz has been front and center in the news this week. A top official in the U.S. Secret Service said earlier this year that potentially embarrassing information the agency had on Chaffetz — who had been leading an investigation into the agency — should be leaked to the public, a government review said Wednesday.
The review, led by the Homeland Security Inspector General, concluded that the accessing of that information violated federal law.
According to the report, Assistant Director Ed Lowery emailed a colleague in the Secret Service and said the “embarrassing” information should “get out.”
The email was sent at the time Chaffetz was directing a review of Secret Service policies and procedures that resulted from a series of missteps by the agency involving security breaches — including some agents supposedly soliciting prostitutes while on official business in Colombia.
The unflattering information about Chaffetz was contained in the congressman’s application to the Secret Service in 2003, years before he was elected as a House representative for Utah.
The inspector general’s review said dozens of agency employees accessed the protected information in Chaffetz’s file when they didn’t have authorization to do so. In doing that, the report said, the employees violated violated the Privacy Act, Secret Service policy, and Homeland Security policy.
“The Inspector General has confirmed that between March 24 and April 2, 2015, on approximately 60 different occasions, 45 Secret Service employees accessed Chaffetz’ sensitive personal information. The OIG concluded that only 4 of the 45 employees had an arguable legitimate need to access the information,” the report said.
The review also said 18 agency supervisors, including the Acting Chief of Staff and the Deputy Director, were aware or should have been aware the protected information was illegally being accessed.
“This episode reflects extremely poor judgment and a lack of care on the part of a number of Secret Service employees,” Inspector General John Roth said. “Given the sensitivity of the information with which these agents are entrusted, particularly with regard to their protective function, this episode is deeply disturbing. Secret Service leadership must ensure that behavior like this will not be tolerated.”
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, apologized to Chaffetz on Wednesday and said he believes Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy will “take appropriate action to hold accountable those who violated any laws or the policies of this department.”
“Activities like those described in the report must not, and will not, be tolerated,” Johnson said in a statement.
The inspector general’s report said Clancy was not made aware of the accessing of Chaffetz’s information until shortly before they were reported by news media.
Lowery had been promoted to his position of assistant director of training just a month before, as part of Clancy’s effort to reform the agency after the embarrassing breaches — which also included a man jumping a fence at the White House and making it all the way inside before he was apprehended.
The review said Lowery denied that he ever asked anyone to leak the information about Chaffetz, and said that the email was merely a way for him to vent anger and stress, the Washington Post reported.
On March 24, a week before Lowery sent the email, Chaffetz scolded the agency and director Clancy for the breaches at a congressional hearing.
Chaffetz on Wednesday expressed concern after the report’s release.
“Certain lines should never be crossed,” he said. “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.”
Chaffetz was not admitted to the Secret Service after his application — and his file reportedly contained a ‘BQA’ notation, which means better qualified applicants existed, USA Today reported.
