The official Senate investigation into the Republicans stealing Dem memos appears to have wrapped up. Everything we were hearing before was true: the GOP staffers on the Judiciary Committee were stealing thousands of documents for 18 months.
As the Washington Post reported:
A three-month investigation by the Senate’s top law enforcement officer found a systematic downloading of thousands of Democratic computer files by Republican staffers over the past few years as well as serious flaws in the chamber’s computer security system.
The report released yesterday by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William H. Pickle noted that two former Senate GOP staff members — including the Republicans’ top aide on judicial nomination strategy — were primarily responsible for accessing and leaking computer memos on Democratic plans for blocking some of President Bush’s judicial nominations.
Pickle made no recommendations about whether to pursue criminal prosecutions in the case, but he cited several federal laws that might be considered, including statutes involving false statements and receipt of stolen property.
And that’s the next phase. Criminal behavior should face criminal punishment, whether it occurs on Capitol Hill or anywhere else.
Also, the Republican defense had been that a security flaw in the computer system made the document stealing easy and that the Dems were partially responsible for the scandal for not having fixed the flaw.
There are two major flaws in this. First, it doesn’t make any sense. A thief can’t blame me if he steals my car after I forgot to look the door. Stealing is stealing; blaming the victim doesn’t work.
And second, the whole argument is apparently false.
Pickle’s report noted the “systemic flaws” in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s computer security practices and recommended steps to improve them. But the report said the flaws did not contribute to the downloading and dissemination of the Democratic files by the two GOP aides.
The report also released — accidentally — the second name of the dismissed GOP aide. We already knew that Manuel Miranda has been a central figure in this scandal, but yesterday’s report also identified Jason Lundell, whose named was supposed to be redacted but wasn’t.
This one’s not over. Senate Dems will continue to insist that a criminal probe follow the Sergeant-at-Arms’ report, and they’ll be right. After all, under the limited scope of this phrase of the investigation, Pickle lacks subpoena power. If others were involved in this scandal– including the White House, DOJ, judicial nominees themselves — Pickle lacked the authority to dig deeper.
In fact, potential White House involvement is not outside the realm of possibility. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), one of the senators whose files were accessed illegally, asked White House counsel Alberto Gonzales if his office had received any of the stolen files. As the New York Times reported, Gonzales chose not to answer the question directly.
In response [to Leahy], Mr. Gonzales offered a denial that was less than categorical, saying: “I am not aware of any credible allegation of White House involvement in this matter. Consequently, there has been no White House investigation or effort to determine whether anyone at the White House was aware of or involved in these activities.”
Now that’s a response that raises more questions than it answers.
Stay tuned.