The assistant director of the Secret Service suggested the agency release embarrassing information about Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) after the congressman made comments critical of the agency, according to a report released Wednesday by the agency’s inspector general (IG).
“Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,” Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an email on March 31, as first reported by The Washington Post. “Just to be fair.”
{mosads}Two days after Lowery sent the email, a news site reported that Chaffetz had applied to be a Secret Service agent in 2003 but was rejected.
Lowery denied to investigators that he ordered the congressman’s file to be leaked.
The file on Chaffetz, which was housed in a restricted database, was viewed by as many as 45 Secret Service agents in March and April.
The IG report also found that the file had been widely shared and spread to nearly every layer of the agency.
Eighteen supervisors knew the private information was being widely disseminated throughout the agency, the IG reported.
“These agents work for an agency whose motto — ‘Worthy of trust and confidence’ — is engraved in marble in the lobby of their headquarters,” IG John Roth wrote in a summary of the report. “Few could credibly argue that the agents involved in this episode lived up to the motto.”
Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, scolded the director of the Secret Service for a series of security lapses in a March 24 House hearing.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said he was “deeply troubled” by the IG’s report.
“Chairman Chaffetz and I have worked together to help restore the Secret Service to its standing as the most elite protective agency in the world,” Cummings said in a statement. “Today’s findings by the Inspector General go directly against this goal and are completely and utterly unacceptable and indefensible.”
President Obama commended the Secret Service on Tuesday for “flawlessly” managing security during a week in which Pope Francis and Chinese President Xi Jinping both visited the White House.