Legal Commentary

What's in a Passport File?

By Jeralyn

As MSNBC continues to hyperventilate over the breach of Barack Obama's "passport file", I'm wondering, what's in a passport file? They aren't saying his State Department file was breached, only his passport file. I thought a passport file is just a file for your applications. When I get visas to travel to other countries, I apply to their consulate, not the U.S.

Bill Clinton's passport files were breached in 1992 when some pages were found missing and the FBI launched an investigation. So what's in a passport file?

Typically such files, which are maintained for all people who receive passports, include materials like passport applications and supporting identity documents.

The following possible forms as being in your passport file:

Passport -- DS-0010 Birth Affidavit [ 205 Kb]
-- DS-0011 Application for U.S. Passport or Registrations (Fillable) [ 1001 Kb]
-- DS-0011 Application for U.S. Passport or Registrations (Non-Fillable) [ 743 Kb]
-- DS-0060 Affidavit Regarding Change of Name [ 222 Kb]
-- DS-0064 Statement Regarding Lost or Stolen Passport [ 231 Kb]
-- DS-0071 Affidavit of Identifying Witness [ 215 Kb]
-- DS-0082 Application for U.S. Passport by Mail (Fillable) [ 717 Kb]
-- DS-0082 Application for U.S. Passport by Mail (Non-Fillable) [ 787 Kb]
-- DS-0086 Statement of Nonreceipt of Passport [ 236 Kb]
-- DS-1173 Passport File Request Form [ 224 Kb]
-- DS-3053 Statement of Consent: Issuance of a Passport to a Minor under Age 16 (Fillable) [ 157 Kb]
-- DS-3053 Statement of Consent: Issuance of a Passport to a Minor under Age 16 (Non-Fillable) [ 143 Kb]
-- DS-3077 Request for Entry into Children's Passport Issuance Alert Program [ 207 Kb]
-- DS-4085 Application for Additional Visa Pages (Fillable) [ 729 Kb]
-- DS-4085 Application for Additional Visa Pages (Non-Fillable) [ 614 Kb]
-- DS-5504 U.S. Passport Re-Application (Fillable) [ 955 Kb]
-- DS-5504 U.S. Passport Re-Application (Non-Fillable) [ 881

The Obama campaign is calling for an investigation, blasting the Bush Administration. The State Department says three low-level employees got curious and looked at them.

Update: CNN has a recap of the State Department's press conference tonight. His passport records were accessed three times by contract employees. They aren't linked. Two were fired, one was disciplined. It was probably curiosity. State Dept. heard about it today and told Obama's campaign. They will brief them tomorrow.

(live blogging Anderson Cooper 360):

CNN has Joe DiGenova who investigated the 1992 breach of Bill Clinton's passport files on. He says the information in the files is identifying information, social security numbers and names of family members. It's a problem that low level career service employees didn't report it higher up the chain until today. It's a violation of the privacy act. In Clinton's case, it appeared to be politically motivated. The State Dept. in Obama's case is attributing it to curiosity, but DiGenova says there should be an investigation.

Larry Johnson is on and I think correctly states the only thing in the file that isn't public knowledge is his social security number.

My view: It's a violation of law, but nothing that could jeopardize his safety. Any employee who works for a credit agency could peek at the social security number. It's a passport file, not a file with reports on Obama.

David Gergen basically also says the information in the file is no big deal.

Anything to distract from Michigan and Florida and disenfranchising over 2 million Democrats. Who alerted the media to this? The Obama campaign?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 20, 2008 (boomark / email).