Many Secret Service officials and agents intentionally spread and eventually leaked embarrassing secret information about a Republican chairman who is investigating the scandal-plagued agency, according to an Inspector General report.
The establishment news website the Daily Beast served as the delivery boy for the Secret Service’s smear job, by posting a weak hit-piece in April 2015 against House Oversight Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
The Republican lawmaker has been riling bureaucrats at the agency by investigating numerous scandals at the Secret Service, after a man hopped the White House fence in September 2014 and ran into the president’s private residence.
Daily Beast reporter Tim Mak published the April 2 piece “Congressman Who Oversees Secret Service Was Rejected By Secret Service,” detailing how Chaffetz unsuccessfully applied to be a Secret Service agent in 2003.
The Secret Service leaked that information to Mak in an effort to “embarrass” Chaffetz, according to an Inspector General report released Wednesday.
“Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out. Just to be fair,” Secret Service Assistant Director Edward Lowery told a colleague in an email two days before Mak’s story ran. At least 45 Secret Service agents shared the information with each other prior to the leak, says the report.
Chaffetz was furious at the improper disclosure.
“Certain lines should never be crossed. The unauthorized access and distribution of my personal information crossed that line,” Chaffetz said in a statement.
“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.”
Mak is the same reporter who wrote a hit piece on Donald Trump, which pushed back against Trump’s remarks about illegal migrant rapists by highlighting a 1989 statement from Trump’s ex-wife Ivana that she felt “violated” during sex.
Ivana Trump called Mak’s story “totally without merit.”
“I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald. The story is totally without merit,” Ivana Trump said. “Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we love and are very proud of. I have nothing but fondness for Donald and wish him the best of luck on his campaign. Incidentally, I think he would make an incredible president.”
As for Mak, he is clearly proud of himself for delivering the agency’s hit on a Republican investigator.
WaPo declines to mention Daily Beast, which was the “news Web site” who scooped Chaffetz’s Secret Service application http://t.co/nXsLlIajqc
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) September 30, 2015
Breitbart News has reached out to the Daily Beast’s Washington bureau chief Will Rahn for clarification about the pro-establishment site’s editorial standards and practices.
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