Legal Commentary

Hillary and McCain's Passport Files Also Breached

By Jeralyn

Condi Rice struggles for answers:

At least four State Department workers pried into the supposedly secure passport files of presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, abashed officials admitted Friday in a revelation that had Condoleezza Rice promising a full investigation and telephoning the candidates to personally apologize. ....The State Department's inspector general was probing, with the Justice Department monitoring the effort, but Obama said that was not enough. He urged congressional involvement "so it's not simply an internal matter."

The company that hired the snoopers is believed to be Stanley, Inc. As to the breach of Hillary's records:

In Clinton's case, someone accessed her file last summer as part of a training session involving another State Department worker. McCormack said the violation was immediately recognized and the person was admonished. That person was not involved in the later incidents, meaning four people were involved in all.

As to what's in a passport file, it's identifying information and a list of the countries one has traveled to, not state secrets: [More...]

It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age, Social Security number and place of birth, which is required when a person fills out a passport application. The file also includes date and place of birth, address at time of application and the countries the person has traveled to.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 21, 2008 (boomark / email).