text: AP Photo Watchdog: Secret Service leaked information on Chaffetz 
   
   The Secret Service leaked sensitive personal information to the press about Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz as the Utah Republican was investigating the beleaguered agency, an inspector general's report said Wednesday. 
   
   The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General issued a report on Wednesday that accused Secret Service Assistant Director Edward Lowery and other agency officials of plotting to leak information about Chaffetz, including his unsuccessful attempt to join the organization. 
   
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   The leaks were a highly unusual breach of decorum. Lawmakers often battle with agencies but the fights mostly stay above board and focus on policy, rather than descending into leaking private information. 
   
   The report found that between March 24 and April 2, 2015, 45 Secret Service employees accessed “sensitive personal information” on Chaffetz nearly 60 times. Only 4 of the 45 employees had “an arguable legitimate need to access the information,” the report found. 
   
   The IG also found that there was widespread dissemination of the personal information. 
   
   Lowry, in one instance, emailed employees saying, “Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out. Just to be fair.” 
   
   Chaffetz blasted the agency for the alleged leaks. 
   
   “Certain lines should never be crossed. The unauthorized access and distribution of my personal information crossed that line. It was a tactic designed to intimidate and embarrass me and frankly, it is intimidating,” the Utah Republican said in a statement. “It’s scary to think about all the possible dangers in having your personal information exposed.” 
   
   The Oversight Committee launched an investigation into the Secret Service earlier this year after a series of embarrassing security incidents at the White House. Chaffetz helped uncover reports that a knife-wielding man got much further into the White House than initially reported and that an armed man was allowed into an elevator with President Barack Obama. 
   
   The panel is also investigating reports that Secret Service agents paid for sex during a presidential visit to Colombia 
   
   Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, said the Secret Service should issue an “immediate apology.” 
   
   “Although the Inspector General identified no evidence of political motivation or influence, I believe in fundamental fairness, and those who are unwilling or unable to meet the highest of ethical standards should not be a part of the Secret Service,” Cummings said in a statement. 
   
   Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said he takes “employee misconduct very seriously” and will ensure the involved parties are punished. 
   
   “I again apologize to Representative Chaffetz for this wholly avoidable and embarrassing misconduct,” Clancy said. “Additionally, I will continue to review policies and practices to address employee misconduct and demand the highest level of integrity of all our employees.” 
   
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   The Secret Service apologized Wednesday to Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a prominent critic of the agency, for violating federal privacy law by improperly accessing sensitive personal information about him dozens of times in little more than a single week. 
   
   Chaffetz, R-Utah — who has aggressively pursued allegations of Secret Service misconduct as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — called the unauthorized retrieval of his unsuccessful application to join the Secret Service in 2003 "a tactic designed to intimidate and embarrass me." 
   
   "It's scary to think about all the possible dangers in having your personal information exposed," Chaffetz said in a statement late Wednesday afternoon. "The work of the committee, however, will continue. I remain undeterred in conducting proper and rigorous oversight." 
   
   Later, in a short interview with NBC News, the congressman reiterated how chilling the report was. 
   
   "It's a bit scary. If they would do this to me, I just, I shuddered to think what they might be doing to other people," he said. "I'd like to tell you how tough I am, but it's scary, and it's intimidating, and I will continue to investigate the Secret Service and others, but this should have never ever happened." 
   
   The improper handling of Chaffetz's personal information was confirmed Wednesday in a 29-page report by the inspector general's office of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service. 
   
   Related: Read the Entire Inspector General's Report (PDF) 
   
   The report discloses an email in which Ed Lowery, the agency's assistant director for training, wrote that "some information that he might be find embarrassing needs to get out." 
   
   The report says Roth told investigators he believed at the time that such disclosures would be "inappropriate" and explained that his email was a human reaction by someone frustrated by "stress and ... anger." 
   
   The report specifically said Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy, whom President Barack Obama appointed in February to clean up a long series of scandals at the agency, was not aware of the improper behavior. 
   
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   When these allegations first surfaced in April, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson referred them to the inspector general and apologized to Chaffetz. The report published Wednesday details the improper behavior and harshly criticizes the Secret Service for violating the Privacy Act of 1974. 
   
   On Wednesday, the Secret Service issued a statement apologizing to Chaffetz for "this wholly avoidable and embarrassing misconduct" and promising that those responsible would be held accountable. 
   
   The inspector general's report found that more than 40 Secret Service employees accessed Chaffetz's 2003 job application a total of more than 60 times, even though they had "no official need to query Chairman Chaffetz' name." 
   
   The first inquiry was made March 24 — just 18 minutes after Chaffetz opened a committee hearing into alleged Secret Service misconduct, the report says. 
   
   Related: Long List of Breaches and Scandals for Secret Service Under Obama 
   
   Over the next nine days, the job application was accessed about 60 more times, the report says, by employees in the public relations office, the countersurveillance division, the division overseeing protection for former President Bill Clinton, the training division and at least 15 domestic and overseas field offices. 
   
   Only four of the inquiries could reasonably be considered justified, it says. 
   
   At least one employee acknowledged to inspector general investigators that he disclosed the protected information to a reporter for The Washington Post, according to the report, and in a further violation of the Privacy Act, some of the employees disseminated Chaffetz's data through the Secret Service email system, it says. 
   
   "This episode reflects an obvious lack of care on the part of Secret Service personnel as to the sensitivity of the information entrusted to them," the report concluded. "It doesn't take a lawyer explaining the nuances of the Privacy Act to know that the conduct that occurred here — by dozens of agents in every part of the agency — was wrong." 
   
   Johnson, the homeland security secretary, said Wednesday that he had repeated his apology to Chaffetz and stressed that "activities like those described in the report must not, and will not, be tolerated." 
   
   But the report angered Chaffetz and other members of his committee, Democratic and Republican alike. 
   
   "It is intimidating," Chaffetz said. "Certain lines should never be crossed. The unauthorized access and distribution of my personal information crossed that line." 
   
   Rep. Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, chairman of the committee's panel on government operations, said the report revealed "woeful abuse of power by a government agency tasked with one of the most important jobs in the country: protecting our nation's president." 
   
   And Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee's top Democrat, said in a statement: "I believe in fundamental fairness, and those who are unwilling or unable to meet the highest of ethical standards should not be a part of the Secret Service." ||||| An assistant director of the Secret Service urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman ­critical of the service should be made public, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday. 
   
   “Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,” Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an e-mail to a fellow director on March 31, commenting on an internal file that was being widely circulated inside the service. “Just to be fair.” 
   
   Two days later, a news Web site reported that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had applied to be a Secret Service agent in 2003 and been rejected. 
   
   That information was part of a Chaffetz personnel file stored in a restricted Secret Service database and required by law to be kept private. 
   
   [Secret Service officials allowed to participate in probe of leak by agency] 
   
   The report by John Roth, inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, singled out Lowery, in part because of his senior position at the agency. The report also cited Lowery’s e-mail as the one piece of documentary evidence showing the degree of anger inside the agency at Chaffetz and the desire for the information to be public. 
   
   Lowery had been promoted to the post of assistant director for training just a month earlier as part of an effort that Secret Ser­vice Director Joseph Clancy said would reform the agency after a series of high-profile security lapses. Clancy had tapped Lowery to join a slate of new leaders he installed after removing more than two-thirds of the previous senior management team. 
   
   During the inspector general’s probe, Lowery denied to investigators that he directed anyone to leak the private information about Chaffetz to the press and said his e-mail was simply a vent for his stress and anger. 
   
   The Chaffetz file, contained in the restricted database, had been peeked at by about 45 Secret Service agents, some of whom shared it with their colleagues in March and April, the report found. This prying began after a contentious March 24 House hearing at which Chaffetz scolded the director and the agency for its series of security gaffes and misconduct. The ­hearing sparked anger inside the ­agency. 
   
   The inspector general’s inquiry found that the Chaffetz information was spread to nearly every layer of the service. 
   
   [Secret Service chief questioned over handling of White House incident] 
   
   Staff members in the most senior headquarters offices, the president’s protective detail, the public affairs office, the office of investigations, and field offices in Sacramento, Charlotte, Dallas and elsewhere accessed Chaffetz’s file — and many acknowledged sharing it widely, according to the report. The day after the March 24 hearing, one agent who had been sent to New York for the visit of the president of Afghanistan recalled that nearly all of the 70 agents at a briefing were discussing it. 
   
   All told, 18 supervisors, including assistant directors, the deputy director and even Clancy’s chief of staff knew the information was being widely shared through agency offices, the report said. 
   
   “These agents work for an agency whose motto — ‘Worthy of trust and confidence’ — is engraved in marble in the lobby of their headquarters building,” Roth wrote in his summary report. “Few could credibly argue that the agents involved in this episode lived up to this motto.” 
   
   Chaffetz issued this response Wednesday night in a statement to The Washington Post: “Certain lines should never be crossed. The unauthorized access and distribution of my personal information crossed that line. It was a tactic designed to intimidate and embarrass me and frankly, it is intimidating. It’s scary to think about all the possible dangers in having your personal information exposed. The work of the committee, however, will continue. I remain undeterred in conducting proper and rigorous oversight.” 
   
   Clancy said in an e-mailed statement earlier Wednesday: “I have reviewed the DHS OIG Report and have provided additional information to the DHS IG. The Secret Service takes employee misconduct very seriously, and as I have stated before, any employee, regardless of rank or seniority, who has committed misconduct will be held accountable. This incident will be no different and I will ensure the appropriate disciplinary actions are taken. 
   
   “On behalf of the men and women of the United States Secret Service, I again apologize to Representative Chaffetz for this wholly avoidable and embarrassing misconduct. Additionally, I will continue to review policies and practices to address employee misconduct and demand the highest level of integrity of all our employees.” 
   
   After reviewing the IG report, the oversight panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), said in a statement that he was “deeply troubled” by what Roth’s team uncovered and that staffers who have shown themselves to be “unwilling or unable to meet the highest ethical standards” should leave the ­agency. 
   
   “Chairman Chaffetz and I have worked together to help restore the Secret Service to its standing as the most elite protective agency in the world,” Cummings said. “Today’s findings by the Inspector General go directly against this goal and are completely and utterly unacceptable and indefensible.” 
   
   DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, whose department includes the Secret Service, urged in a statement that those personnel who had engaged in inappropriate conduct should be held responsible. 
   
   Roth said in his report that it was “especially ironic and troubling” that the Chaffetz information circulated so widely inside the agency and yet Clancy did not know about it. Even Clancy chief of staff Michael Biermann and Deputy Director Craig Magaw had been privy to the information, the report said, but did not alert ­Clancy. 
   
   Clancy had previously raised concerns about the failure of his staff to keep him properly informed. At the March 24 hearing, he said he was “infuriated” that he was not alerted by his senior management to an incident earlier that month in which two senior supervisors drove onto the White House complex after a night of drinking and crossed through an active bomb-investigation scene. 
   
   “He testified that he was ‘working furiously to try to break down these barriers where people feel that they can’t talk up the chain,’ ” Roth wrote. “Yet the Director himself did not know.” 
   
   Roth’s investigation examined not only who accessed Chaffetz’s personnel file inside the service but also who disclosed information about the file to the media. The Daily Beast first reported on April 2 that Chaffetz had once been rejected for a job at the service. The Post reported additional details later that evening. 
   
   One official told The Post that the material included a parody poster that pictured Chaffetz leading a hearing on the Secret Service from his congressional dais, with the headline “Got BQA from the Service in 2003.” Within the Secret Service, “BQA” is an acronym meaning that a “better qualified applicant” was available. 
   
   Roth’s report said investigators were unable to pin down how The Post and the Daily Beast obtained their information. “Because of the significant number of individuals who had knowledge of Chairman Chaffetz’s application history, we were unable to conclusively determine the universe of sources of the disclosure . . . to individuals outside of government,” the report said. 
   
   Roth himself has faced criticism over his handling of the investigation because he allowed inspectors from the Secret Service’s internal affairs office to sit in on interviews and question some witnesses alongside his investigators. Legal experts and former government investigators have said the service’s involvement was a potential conflict of interest because top officials at the agency had an incentive to embarrass Chaffetz. Experts also expressed concerns that it could deter internal whistleblowers from coming forward with additional allegations of misconduct, for fear of retribution by their bosses.
target: – Secret Service agents played dirty when a congressman criticized the agency, according to a government watchdog report. During Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz's investigation of the service, top agents dug into his files and decided to leak information about the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, including the fact that he had unsuccessfully applied to join the service in 2003, reports the Washington Post. "Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out," Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an email on March 31 this year. "Just to be fair." Within days, a news website reported on Chaffetz's failed application, the Post reports. The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General found that in the space of a few days, 45 Secret Service agents accessed Chaffetz's confidential file, Politico reports. Only four of the agents could claim to have a legitimate need to see the information and the others violated federal privacy laws, according to the report, which stresses that Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy wasn't aware of the behavior, NBC News reports. The agency has apologized and Chaffetz has issued a statement slamming the agency for using "a tactic designed to intimidate and embarrass" him. "Certain lines should never be crossed," he said. "The unauthorized access and distribution of my personal information crossed that line."