This needs to be examined on BOTH sides. Who gave them the information? Is there a DNC operative working for the agency who got the reports to them?
Katie Barge, one of the senior research officials with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee who resigned after it was discovered that she and another woman may have illegally obtained the credit report of Maryland Lt. Governor most recently worked at Media Matters for America. The seasoned political operative also worked for the failed presidential campaign of John Edwards according to Source Watch.
Since you can get your credit report 'online', it wouldn't be very difficult to do using someone elses I.D.
Two opposition researchers working for Sen. Charles Schumer at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee obtained copies of a confidential credit report on Maryland's Republican lieutenant governor, prompting calls for their prosecution.In July, committee research director Katie Barge and Lauren Weiner, a junior staffer, used Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's Social Security number to get his credit report, according to a Democratic official familiar with the case.
The committee, which works to elect Democrats to the Senate, has been compiling research on Steele, Maryland's highest-ranking African-American official, a GOP contender for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Democrat Paul Sarbanes in 2006.
Barge, a Democratic operative who led the research unit for a liberal media watchdog group run by journalist David Brock before joining the committee in February, reported her actions to the committee's executive director, J.B. Poersch Jr., within hours. Poersch relayed the information to the U.S. attorney's office and suspended the pair with pay until Aug. 31, the official said.
Barge and Weiner resigned earlier this month after an internal investigation. Calls to the FBI, which is probing the case, weren't returned last night.
"The lieutenant governor is the victim of identity theft and would like these people prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Steele's chief of staff Paul Ellington said. "They posed as him to get his credit report. We're not going to say they were going to buy a car with the information they got, but a crime was committed."
Fraudulently obtaining a person's credit report is punishable by a maximum of 2 years in prison, according to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Phil Singer, a spokesman for the campaign committee, said Schumer, who took over the committee in November 2004 and was chairman when the two staffers were hired, had no knowledge of the actions. "Chuck's only involvement was to report this matter to the authorities immediately after first learning about it," Singer said.
"The DSCC immediately ensured that Mr. Steele's credit report was not used or disseminated to anyone," added Singer, who called the matter an "isolated incident."
And:
Republicans here in Maryland have nailed the desperate Democrats' attempt to smear Steele dead-on:"If they're trashing you, they fear you," Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) said. "You don't go to this sort of extreme if you're not fearful."Also:
at Captain's Quarters, where one commenter bluntly explains the crimes involved:To obtain a report legally, a signature authorization is required and information is required to obtain the report.The access of the report is a crime. The distribution of the report is a crime. The acceptance and READING of the report is a crime.
If someone gave the people accessing the report personal information required to obtain the report, they also committed a crime.
Using any of the data on the report against someone is distribution and may even have other criminal elements attached if consideration was requested.
Period.
The people screaming about Plame should be outraged. Everyone upset over identitiy theft should be outraged. Every American should be outraged at this misuse of personal data.