Posted on 02/11/2004 8:56:06 PM PST by fedupwithlibs
WASHINGTON -- Open access to the opposing party's private computer files was common knowledge among staff of Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, claims a former Hatch employee implicated in leaking Democratic memos.
Manuel Miranda, a former Hatch Judiciary Committee staff member, resigned Friday as an aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee after acknowledging accessing confidential Democratic memos about blocking President Bush's judicial nominees.
In a "departure statement" released Monday, Miranda said the "glitch" that allowed Hatch staffers to snoop in Democrats' computer files was no secret, that Democrats' own negligence is to blame for the leak, and that Hatch is mistaken in his stand that the breach was unethical.
"Regrettably, he and I have disagreed on the propriety of my reading Democrat documents that are the subject of the investigation," Miranda said in his statement. "I believe that he is ill-advised on the computer law and legal ethics in question, particularly in the adversarial and noncollegial environment over which he presides."
Some conservative organizations have blasted Hatch, claiming he is coddling Democrats by authorizing a wide-ranging probe of what has been dubbed Memogate. Judiciary Committee Democrats emerged Monday from a closed-door briefing with Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle, saying the partisan poaching was more extensive than just 14 memos leaked to conservative newspapers in November and that a criminal investigation may be warranted.
"As a former prosecutor I don't want to say anything that could affect the prosecution of what may well become a criminal matter in the theft of these memos," said ranking minority member Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
In his statement, Miranda said another "young colleague" on Hatch's judiciary staff first showed him how to read Democrats' files stored on a computer server shared by both parties and that this staffer had downloaded "perhaps thousands" of Democratic documents just by clicking on a "My Network Places" computer desktop icon.
He justified peeking at the files because "there is no privacy expectation to documents on a government server" and because he was told that Democratic staff under Leahy knew of the loophole and "did nothing to protect their documents, as the law requires, either before or after being informed."
Tracy Schmaler, Leahy's press secretary on the judiciary committee, said the claim Democrats knew of the breach that allowed GOP spying is "preposterous."
"Senator Leahy made several attempts over the past five years to create a more secure computer system by separating the networks of the majority and minority staffs," said Schmaler, "but his efforts were repeatedly rebuffed or ignored by the Republican side of the aisle."
Who comitted the criminal act Mr. Leahy? I would say you guys did.
P.S. Orrin Hatch is a piece of excrement. Is there NO ONE of substance who will challenge him in a primary? Is there ANY chance he can be dethroned as Chairman in favor of Jeff Sessions or Jim Inhofe? To hell with seniority...the man has betrayed everything we work for day after day in FReepLand.
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