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Spying by the GOP
Not only can the republicans NOT think for themselves, now they have
to spy on the Democrats: GOP stole peek at Dems' papers Memos were on judicial nominations Neil A. Lewis, New York Times Friday, March 5, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Washington -- For 18 months, at least two aides to Republican senators engaged in unauthorized and possibly illegal spying by reading Democratic strategy memorandums on a Senate computer system, according to a report released Thursday by the Senate's sergeant-at-arms. The 65-page report concluded that two Republican staff aides, both of whom have since departed, improperly read, downloaded and printed as many as 4, 670 files concerning the Democrats' strategy in opposing many of President Bush's judicial nominees. The report of an investigation undertaken at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee suggests that many other Republican aides may have been involved in trafficking in the purloined documents from the offices of Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and others. "I am mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable breach of confidential files occurred," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters. The report was supposed to be released with the names of people involved redacted, but reporters were mistakenly given a copy with the names included. The two former Republican aides were identified as Manuel Miranda, who already had been named as a central figure in the investigation, and Jason Lundell, whose name had not been known previously. Investigators said an inexperienced computer coordinator did not make files adequately inaccessible, and that Lundell observed the coordinator opening files with a few key strokes and then copied what he had done. For the next 18 months, the report said, Lundell supplied documents to Miranda after getting access to the files of staff aides for Democratic Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Feinstein and Kennedy. The largest share was from Durbin's office. Some information sought by Miranda and provided by Lundell, according to the report, was about how Democrats would question some of Bush's judicial nominees. Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, wrote to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales asking if his office received any of the stolen information. Gonzales offered a denial, saying: "I am not aware of any credible allegation of White House involvement in this matter." |
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