Secret Service Targeted … Jason Chaffetz
“Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out.”
First we had the IRS targeting American citizens, now we have the Secret Service targeting a sitting member of congress. What’s next?
Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah was basically singled out for a smear campaign.
Noah Rothman reports at Commentary:
Another Targeting Scandal
“This is scary. 1984 scary,” National Journal columnist Ron Fournier remarked on Thursday. “We’ve got an agency called ‘Secret Service’ targeting political enemies. Think about that.”
Indeed. This week, the fraternity house that is United States Secret Service graduated from ribald antics and hijinks to the outright political intimidation of those who would dare spoil the good time. The specific target of the Secret Service’s botched decapitation strike was House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz.
According to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, the USSS assistant director tried to get some embarrassing information about the congressman into the public sphere in the effort to coerce Chaffetz to back off his investigation of the agency responsible for the personal safety of America’s most prominent political figures.
This was not just an implied threat against Chaffetz. It wasn’t a coy wink and a nod from the agency manager in question that triggered the operation aimed at defaming and intimidating an influential member of the House of Representatives. “Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,” wrote USSS Assistant Director Edward Lowery. “Just to be fair.”
Chaffetz discussed the issue with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday:
Carol D. Leonnig and Jerry Markon of the Washington Post have more:
Secret Service official wanted to embarrass congressman
The inspector general’s inquiry found that the Chaffetz information was spread to nearly every layer of the service.
Staff members in the most senior headquarters offices, the president’s protective detail, the public affairs office, the office of investigations, and field offices in Sacramento, Charlotte, Dallas and elsewhere accessed Chaffetz’s file — and many acknowledged sharing it widely, according to the report. The day after the March 24 hearing, one agent who had been sent to New York for the visit of the president of Afghanistan recalled that nearly all of the 70 agents at a briefing were discussing it.
All told, 18 supervisors, including assistant directors, the deputy director and even Clancy’s chief of staff knew the information was being widely shared through agency offices, the report said.
“These agents work for an agency whose motto — ‘Worthy of trust and confidence’ — is engraved in marble in the lobby of their headquarters building,” Roth wrote in his summary report. “Few could credibly argue that the agents involved in this episode lived up to this motto.”
There is absolutely no excuse for this. Heads should roll.
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“There is absolutely no excuse for this. Heads should roll.” The non-partisan, universal headline applicable to all things Beltway.
Minor tick here, Aleister…
‘Worthy of trust and confidence’ — is engraved in marble in the lobby of their headquarters building,” Roth wrote…
Who’s Roth? I understand its a vestige of cutting and pasting from other sources, but it jes’ ain’t rat…
Aside from all that, this is another manifestation of Thugovernment. A culture that says Federal employees are above review and oversight by the people, or even their elected representatives, and agencies which will use fair means or foul to protect their own little realms.
John Roth is the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security. It was he who was tasked with the investigation and report into this issue.
Yes, Amy, I know. The point was that, like a good Chinese chef, a good writer prepares his/her dish carefully.
“Aside from all that, this is another manifestation of Thugovernment.”
Every branch of government is being used in an effort to destroy the political opponents of big government and the marxists.
Secret Service, check
IRS, check
EPA, check
FBI, check
OSHA, check
Customs/border bureau, check
fill in the blank, check
Is not everything in this article reflective of the old adage, “It starts at the top.”
The last 7 years (almost) of this regime have been nightmarish scandals like this over, and over, and over again. And not once, that I can recall, did “heads roll.”
Why now? The DoJ won’t care – and who else is empowered to somehow take action? Obama?! Don’t make me laugh……..
This is just an extension of the Obama administration business as usual. They created the climate to say it’s OK. If you dare oppose the Obama administration in any manor or shape the full force and power of the federal government will be unleashed on you. The federal government has been weaponized to attack citizens (congressman)Will the president take any action to correct this? …… Crickets, crickets…..
The IRS, EPA, ATF have all been turned against American citizens.
” … punish your enemies.” — BHO
– but only if your enemies are Republicans or conservatives.
He has no other enemies other than the GOP and Conservatives.
Since when is the GOP the enemy of Zero? They’re just as eager to kiss his pathetic arse as the Dems and the media ~
Is there a single government agency or department the Obama administration hasn’t weaponized in order to punish its political enemies?
The 0bama years, in one cliche: A fish rots from the head down.
Yes and it already reached the tail. The poor fish has had it.
Effluvium runs downhill ~
I have said it before – this is nothing new. Our government is bloated with lots of rotting fish that we pay for! Makes me ill to to think this is the new norm. We are over the tipping point because of work place rules (govt unions) and cannot rid ourselves of this stink!
I would have lost my job if I were caught accessing a patient’s record when I had no need to. I saw someone at work walked out the door by security when it was discovered he had accessed his ex-wife’s medical record. Why are these people not losing their jobs?
Because the executive branch they work for does not respect Congress, nor does it fear Congress, so it thinks a few personal apologies are more than sufficient rather than… ew… action.
Two big, general answers…
1. government unions, and
2. an unspoken pact between the WH and government employees where everyone covers each others’ butts
Cops do that sort of thing all the time, and rarely get fired for it.
“Earlier this month, Miami’s NBC 6 broadcast the latest in a string of media reports about cops abusing the database. NBC 6 found that 72 percent of the officers caught misusing the system got off with only a reprimand.
“Over the last two years, stories about the misuse of the system have been piling up around Florida. A police officer in Clearwater was demoted after using D.A.V.I.D. more than 100 times to dredge up information on his ex-wife’s boyfriend, a TV news reporter and the ex-wives of his colleagues. A Hillsborough sheriff’s detective was suspended for 60 days after searching out info about colleagues, lawyers, a judge, celebrities, even members of his own family.
“When NBC2 in Fort Myers looked into unauthorized D.A.V.I.D. searches by the Collier County Sheriff’s Department, reporters discovered that one deputy had searched out info on 151 people including the governor and two of the station’s female news anchors.
“The Orlando Sentinel reported that an Oviedo police officer ran 19 searches on a bank teller he was trying to woo.”
Unions. Unions, and a sense of “We’re The Government, So We’re Above The Law.” But for the most part, unions.
Then my former employer is heads and shoulders about these agencies. Let’s hear it for Kaiser-Permanente!
Um…
January 2013: Vast cache of Kaiser patient details was kept in private home
December 2013: Kaiser Permanente reports privacy breach to 49,000 patients
April 2014: Kaiser Permanente Suffers Fourth Privacy Breach In 5 Years
The Government version of Tar and Feathers for *every* SS employee who accessed the record is a formal letter of reprimand and a revocation of their security clearance, pending a full review. That may not sound like much, but it’s the loud clang of a steel door falling on their future promotion potential, and a black mark for any employment elsewhere.
Not enough, in my opinion. Fired. Period.
I agree.
Here’s my question for all the frequent poster regulars here:
If the current president was a Republican (even a RINO you weren’t fond of) and Chafffetz was a Democrat, and the rest of the details were the same – what is the MAIN question you’d be asking, that nobody has asked yet? I haven’t heard it brought up anywhere.
And once you figure out the question, do you think that sceniro would make a better script for House of Cards, or a sequel to the Clint Eastwood Secret Service movie?
Guess all you can do is try to spin the story. Right?
What if……. look over here. Nothing to see here just move along!
Obama administration motto: “Champagne for our true friends, and true pain for our sham friends.”