Undoubtedly another coincidence.
The recently concluded Democrats’ special committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol leaked the Social Security numbers of almost 2,000 visitors to the White House when Donald Trump was president.
According to The Washington Times, the information contained in the breach stemmed from December 2020, Trump’s last month in office.
As the Times reported, “At least three of the numbers, inadvertently leaked as part of the hoard of documents the committee posted online in recent weeks, belonged to members of Trump’s cabinet.”
“Several Republican governors and floods of other Trump allies have been caught up in the privacy breach.”
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The Times reported that the visitor log was taken offline last Wednesday, but the Government Publishing Office, the agency responsible for posting the log online, “does not appear to have notified the individuals whose private information was leaked.”
One of them was South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican.
Noem fired off a letter on Friday to the GPO, the National Archives, and Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the J6 committee, demanding answers of “how the breach of privacy occurred, who was responsible, what steps each of you has taken to remedy the breach, and what specific measures and remedies will be taken to protect Governor Noem and her family in light of the public dissemination of their private information and the heightened risk for identity theft and any other future privacy violations.”
Besides Noem, others whose privacy was breached by the leak included Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Henry McMaster of South Carolina, as well as Trump’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, according to the Washington Examiner.
Stars and Stripes added that at least two federal judges, a half-dozen witnesses who testified before the J6 committee, and a lawyer who represented another witness were also put at risk by the release.
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The Examiner quoted Carson, who told The Washington Post, “Whether it was a careless and sloppy handling of records or a deliberate disregard of decorum, either scenario is a perfunctory and callous display of government and a frightening reminder of the current state in Washington. President Reagan was a savant indeed — the nine most frightening words to hear are, ‘I am from the government and here to help.’”
It appears the J6 Committee is responsible for the leak.
The Examiner reported, “The National Archives appeared to blame the leak on the Jan. 6 committee itself.”
As did the GPO.
A GPO spokesman told Stars and Stripes that the agency “does not edit or alter materials provided by Congress for publication.”
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