During a State Department briefing on March 21 , 2008 , McCormack confirmed that the contractor had accessed the passport files of presidential candidates Barack Obama , Hillary Rodham Clinton , and John McCain , and that the inspector general had launched an investigation . Sources who tracked the investigation tell Newsmax that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file , and that the contractor accessed the file in order to “ cauterize ” the records of potentially embarrassing information . “ They looked at the McCain and Clinton files as well to create confusion , ” one knowledgeable source told Newsmax . “ But this was basically an attempt to cauterize the Obama file . ” At the time of the breach , Brennan was working as an unpaid adviser to the Obama campaign . ;