The Senate Judiciary Computer Caper

Back when, I posted on the leak of a Demo memo that revealed Repukes were pirating info from Demwit computers.

Josh Marshall comments:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch has placed one of his committee staffers on administrative leave for what the media reports are agreeing to call, with some delicacy, "improperly obtaining data from the secure computer networks of two Democratic senators."

(Reminds me of my pals who used to get kicks by improperly obtaining Snickers bars from the local drug store when we were in grade school.)

Reporters are still euphemizing the situation:

Jan 24: 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.

...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.  KnoxNews article

Manuel Miranda. There's just so much pulp there, I don't know where to start - first name or last. I'll pass.

Miranda is on leave of absence...

November 25, 2003: WASHINGTON(AP) -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said Tuesday he had put one of his staffers on administrative leave for improperly obtaining data from the secure computer networks of two Democratic senators.

Hatch, R-Utah, said preliminary interviews suggested that a former Republican member of the committee staff may have also been involved in penetrating the Democratic computers.   source

The Repukes are arguing that the action wasn't technically illegal. They are also saying that the Dims knew about the computer glitch that allowed the Repukes to access their files and didn't repair it. How likely is that story? But, really, you never know - and truth is surely stranger than fiction. The Dims, of course, say they never knew. Apparently, even in legal terms, under guidelines for attorneys (yeah, I know) a lawyer is obligated to inform opposing counsel of any confidential material received inadvertently. The Repukes also say that there is no "expectation of privacy" for documents on a federal server, as those are archived as government property anyway.  source

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.  KnoxNews article

"The computer glitch dates to 2001, when Democrats took control of the Senate after the defection from the GOP of Senator Jim Jeffords, Independent of Vermont."  source

The DNC says the Senate Judiciary Repukes were breaking into Demwit computers for over a year. And I suppose that if not for that one little leak about the Dems' strategy for blocking Double-slime's judiciary nominees (they just couldn't help themselves - it was too good), they would still be doing it. You have to wonder - the slime appointed his man Pickering under cover of sleaze politics anyway.

I don't imagine there's anything legally actionable here. It's just another reminder of the ethics of politics.

DNC is running an online petition:

To: Republican Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee

When Republican staffers of the Senate Judiciary Committee broke into Democratic computer files to access strategic memos, they crossed an ethical line. When Republicans refused to take responsibility and tried to shift blame to a computer glitch, they proved they had no values. It's time to stand up and take responsibility for the actions of your staff and make sure those responsible are held accountable.

Sign it here.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.