WASHINGTON – More than a dozen Veterans Health Administration employees accessed the medical records of vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz in violation of federal medical privacy laws, officials say, anonymously as part of a criminal investigation into the breach. Two people familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.
Justice Department investigators have not yet said whether the records were shared or why the employees had access to them. Most of the VA employees who opened the files were using computers working for government agencies. At least one person who accessed the records was a doctor and another was a VA contractor who spent hours reviewing the records, according to a VA official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The fraud revelations came on the eve of the first and only in-person debate between candidates ahead of the November election.
Officials briefed on the investigation said some employees told investigators that Walz and Vance’s records were not available because they were under intense scrutiny during the presidential campaign. He reportedly stated that he was just interested. In some cases, a veteran’s service record can be accessed through the veteran’s medical record.
VA spokesman Terrence Hayes strongly condemned the violation and said the agency had notified law enforcement.
“We take our veterans’ privacy very seriously and have strict policies in place to protect their records,” Hayes said. โAttempts by VA personnel to gain unauthorized access to VA records are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.โ
Spokespeople for Democratic candidate Walz, the Minnesota governor, and Republican candidate Vance, the Ohio senator, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Department of Veterans Affairs notified Vance and Walz about the violations, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Dennis McDonough sent a message to employees reminding them of privacy laws after the violations were discovered in August.
“This message is a reminder that veteran information should only be accessed when necessary to accomplish officially authorized and assigned duties,” McDonough said in a memo obtained by USA TODAY. There is.” “Inspection of a veteran’s records out of curiosity or concern or for any purpose not directly related to officially authorized and assigned duties is strictly prohibited.”
The VA Inspector General, an independent watchdog, briefed federal prosecutors. Veterans Affairs officials said the inspector general is working with the Justice Department on the investigation.
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Data breaches, election interference
Sensitive information held in digital keys by presidential candidates is frequently sought by those seeking to influence presidential elections.
Justice Department investigators indict three Iranian men suspected of hacking into former President Donald Trump’s presidential election in an attempt to influence the election, days before allegations of fraud at the Veterans Administration were made public. was secured.
The 37-page indictment released on Friday does not name Trump, but the documents reveal that the charges were filed against journalists and Joe Biden’s presidential campaign before Biden chose to step down in the election. It has been revealed that this is related to an attempt to steal information from the United States and leak it to journalists. .
According to the indictment, the men are Masoud Jalili, Seyed Ali Agamiri, and Yasar Baraghi, and are employed by the Iranian government’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military branch. The US government has not arrested the trio, whose last known residence was in Tehran.
It’s not just foreign governments that have an interest in Trump.
Former Internal Revenue Service contractor Charles Littlejohn took a job with the federal government for the express purpose of leaking tax information about Trump and other wealthy individuals to the press, according to Justice Department prosecutors.
Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty in October to fraudulently disclosing tax returns and tax return information and was sentenced to five years in prison in January.
Mr. Littlejohn, who submitted data to the New York Times and investigative news site ProPublica, said after President Trump refused to release his tax returns that he was acting in the public’s best interest, a “misguided but He said he had put his sincere beliefs into action. Manning’s filing says he was elected president despite a 50-year tradition of disclosure.
Marines and Minnesota National Guard Sgt.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has access to sensitive information about Vance and Walz because they both served in the military before running for office.
Vance enlisted in the military immediately after graduating from high school. He joined the Marine Corps in 2003 and served as a combat correspondent, or military journalist, until 2007, according to military news site Task & Purpose. According to his memoir, he was deployed to Iraq for six months in late 2005, where he escorted civilian reporters and wrote articles about the Marine Corps. He spent his last nine months of service as a media representative at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, one of the largest military bases on the East Coast.
Was J.D. Vance a Marine? A look back at the military history of President Trump’s vice presidential candidate
Walz served in the military for 24 years. He enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard in 1981 at age 17 and transferred to the Minnesota National Guard in 1996, where he served as command sergeant major, the highest rank for an enlisted soldier. He retired in 2005 and ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. Shortly after Walz retired, his battalion was deployed to Iraq.
During his career, Walz responded to natural disasters such as floods and tornadoes in Minnesota and Nebraska, and was sent overseas for months at a time, according to Minnesota Public Radio. In 2003, he was sent to Italy with the European Security Forces to support the war in Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Norway for joint training with other NATO forces.
Tim Walz’s military history: What you need to know about the vice presidential candidate’s National Guard service
Data Breach at VA: Over 100,000 Veterans Affected
Illegal access to candidate files is the latest controversy for the Veterans Administration, which has been accused of privacy violations over the past decade.
More than 46,000 veterans had their personal data compromised in 2020, according to the department’s Office of Administration. An unauthorized user accessed the Veterans Affairs Financial Services Center online application and stole payments to local health care providers for treating veterans. The department warned that unauthorized users also accessed sensitive data such as social security numbers and financial information.
VA employees and contractors were found responsible for more than 14,000 medical privacy violations at 167 facilities between 2010 and 2013, according to Healthcare Compliance Pros, a health system consulting firm. . This violation affected more than 100,000 veterans and more than 500 VA personnel.
Violations include snooping on people’s medical records and divulging sensitive information such as social security numbers. Criminal investigators have encountered multiple instances in which VA employees have stolen the identities and prescriptions of veterans.
Unauthorized access to taxpayer information at the IRS
Littlejohn, who filed President Trump’s tax returns, is not the only IRS employee to have illegally accessed the agency’s data. According to a 2022 Comptroller’s Office report, the IRS established more than 450 cases of intentional unauthorized access to taxpayer information by employees between fiscal years 2012 and 2021.
The watchdog found employee violations in 27% of 1,694 investigations.
In 2008, five Internal Revenue Service employees at a tax return processing center in Fresno, California, were indicted on charges of computer fraud and unauthorized access to tax return information for peeping into taxpayer files.
Prosecutors said at the time that IRS agents were only given access to the accounts of taxpayers who posted them, not to friends, relatives, neighbors or celebrities.
Contributors: Melissa Crews and George Fave Russell.