Memogate

Memogate, also being called Cybergate, was the internal U.S. Senate investigation "into whether Republican aides unethically (and perhaps illegally) tapped into Democratic computer files containing private judicial-nomination strategy memos and leaked them to the press." [1]

Neil A. Lewis wrote in the March 5, 2004, edition of the New York Times:

"For 18 months, at least two Republican Senate staff aides engaged in unauthorized and possibly illegal spying by reading Democratic strategy memorandums on a Senate computer system, according to a report released on Thursday by the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

"The 65-page report concluded that the two Republican staff aides, both of whom have since departed, improperly read, downloaded and printed as many as 4,670 files concerning the Democrats' tactics in opposing many of President Bush's judicial nominees. The report, the result of an investigation undertaken at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested that many other Republican staff aides may have been involved in trafficking in the stolen documents."

Related SourceWatch Resources

• Bush administration leaks
• Bush administration scandals
• Bush administration smear campaigns
• Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
• Orrin G. Hatch

External links

• "Orrin G. Hatch's Staff Stole Democratic Memos," LeftCoaster, November 25, 2003.
• Christopher Smith, "Hatch says he's 'shocked' at hacking of files. Sen Orrin Hatch has suspended a staffer," Salt Lake Tribune, November 26, 2003.
• Alexander Bolton, "Hatch suspends GOP aide. Source of leaks from Judiciary Committee found," The Hill, November 26, 2003.
• Jim Abrams, "Orrin Hatch puts staffer on leave, Associated Press (Contra Costa Times), November 26, 2003: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said Tuesday he had put one of his staffers on administrative leave for improperly obtaining data from the secure computer networks of two Democratic senators. ... Hatch, R-Utah, said preliminary interviews suggested that a former Republican member of the committee staff may have also been involved in penetrating the Democratic computers."
• Charlie Savage, "Infiltration of files seen as extensive. Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats," Boston Globe, January 22, 2004.
• Neil A. Lewis, (Abstract) "Senate Inquiry Into Memos That Went Astray Nears End," New York Times, January 23, 2004: "Senate sergeant-at-arms William Pickle says he is nearing end to investigation into how several confidential memorandums written by Democratic staff aides about dealing with judicial nominations ended up in hands of Republican staff members; Pickle began his probe after Democrats complained that their confidential memorandums were being stolen and distributed to conservative news outlets; Pickle says he will issue report to Judiciary Committee."
• Jack Shafer, "Globe, Too Hot; Times, Too Cold. Roll Call gets the stolen Democrat files scandal just right," Slate, January 23, 2004.
• Mary Curtius, "Spying incident riles judiciary panel. Sergeant at Arms William Pickle is trying to determine who accessed parts of 15 memos dealing with Democratic strategy on judicial nominations," Los Angeles Times (Miami Herald), January 24, 2004.
• Robert Vamosi, "Security breach on Capitol Hill: It's criminal," ZDNet, January 26, 2004.
• Mark Rasch, "The first fallout from Cybergate. Did Republican staffers commit a crime by clicking on the 'My Network Places' icon to access Democratic memos?" Security Focus, February 9, 2004.
• Charles Hurt, "Conservatives call for probe," Washington Times, February 12, 2004.
• Helen Dewar, "'Memogate' spurs bipartisan demand for Senate inquiry," Washington Post, February 18, 2004.
• Dahlia Lithwick, "Memogate. The Judiciary Committee computer scandal is one gnarly sausage," Slate, February 19, 2004.
• Michael Crowley, "Sen. Orrin Hatch. If this conservative senator isn't safe from conservative attacks, is anyone?" Slate, February 20, 2004.
• Letter: "Judiciary Democrats Send New Letter To Ashcroft On Stolen Memos," Office of U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, February 27, 2004.
• Thomas Ferrano, "About 4,700 Democratic Files Improperly Obtained," Reuters, March 4, 2004.
• Robert Lemos, "GOP clerks nabbed Democratic data, says probe," C|Net News, March 5, 2004.
• Neil A. Lewis, "Report Finds Republican Aides Spied on Democrats," New York Times, March 5, 2004.
• Jesse J. Holland, "Senators Ponder How to Handle Memo Theft," Associated Press, March 5, 2004: "Democrats are calling for an outside investigation into the theft of memos from their computer files since a new report blames two Senate Republican staffers for the intrusion." Note: Link no longer active.
• Mary Curtius, "Hacking Incident Riles Democrats," Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2004: Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle's "report, based on interviews with more than 160 staffers and others, says Manuel Miranda, who was a lawyer on the staff of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and Jason Lundell, a clerk working on judicial nominations on Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin G. Hatch's staff, pilfered the memos by entering the computer files of Democratic staff members. ... According to the report, more than 4,000 documents were copied beginning in 2001, when both men worked for Hatch (R-Utah), and continued for 18 months."
• Christopher Smith, "Probe finds ex-clerks on Hatch panel hacked files," Salt Lake Tribune, March 5, 2004: "A Utah clerk [Jason Lundell] on Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch's Judiciary Committee staff secretly combed the confidential computer files of Democrats "on an almost daily basis," a Senate investigation has concluded. ... Manuel Miranda, another former Hatch staffer who resigned as an aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist last month, acknowledged he accessed and read 'two or three' Democratic files. The SAA report says there is 'circumstantial evidence' implicating Miranda as the Senate employee who gave the confidential documents to an activist, who allegedly leaked them to the news media."
• Joshua Micah Marshall, "Talking Points Memo", March 7, 2004: "As we've noted here at TPM a few times now, one of the questions coming out of the investigation into those pilfered Democratic Judiciary Committee staff memos is whether the GOP staffers in question shared the memos with colleagues at the Justice Department or the White House. ... We've now looked over the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms report on the matter issued last week. And it seems clear that his investigators were prevented from finding out whether or not this happened because of their lack of subpoena and other standard law enforcement powers."
• Alexander Bolton, "Pickle: New leak probe. GOP suspects that Thursday’s blunder was intentional," The Hill, March 10, 2004.
• Alexander Bolton, "Pickle to take memo report to Justice," The Hill, March 17, 2004: "Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle said Tuesday that he would give his report on how Republican aides obtained internal Democratic Judiciary Committee memos to the Justice Department for a possible criminal prosecution."
• Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press, April 26, 2004: The U.S. Department of Justice asked, David N. Kelley, "the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York ... to investigate how Republicans got access to Democrats' computer memos in the Senate Judiciary Committee." Note: Link no longer active.
• Eric Lichtblau, "Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry on Memo Theft," New York Times, April 27, 2004: "The opening of the criminal inquiry increases the significance of the case, which has provoked open hostilities between Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in their continuing battle over President Bush's judicial nominations."
• "Leahy: Justice Department to probe leaked files. Report said GOP staffers accessed Democratic memos," CNN, April 27, 2004.
• eafredel, "Manuel Miranda and Memogate: An After-Action Report," Daily Kos, May 17, 2005.