VA staffers looked at medical records of vice presidential nominees JD Vance, Tim Walz: sources
WASHINGTON − More than a dozen Veterans Health Administration employees accessed the medical records of vice presidential nominees JD Vance and Tim Walz in violation of federal health privacy laws, two sources told Paste BN on condition of anonymity because of a criminal probe into the breaches.
Justice Department investigators have not yet determined if the records were shared or why the employees accessed them. Most of the VA staffers who opened the files used work computers in government offices. Among those who accessed the records, at least one was a physician and another was a VA contractor who looked through the records for extended periods, according to a VA source who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Revelations of the breaches come on the eve of the candidates first and only head-to-head debate ahead of the election in November.
Some of the employees told investigators they were just curious about the records of Walz and Vance since the two men are under scrutiny during the presidential campaign, according to an official briefed on the investigation. In some cases, veterans' service records are accessible through VA medical records, the source said.
VA spokesperson Terrence Hayes strongly condemned the breaches and said the department reported them to law enforcement.
"We take the privacy of the Veterans we serve very seriously and have strict policies in place to protect their records," Hayes said. "Any attempt to improperly access Veteran records by VA personnel is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
Spokespersons for Walz, the Democratic nominee who is governor of Minnesota, and Vance, the Republican nominee who is a senator from Ohio, didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.
The VA notified the Vance and Walz campaigns about the breaches and VA Secretary Denis McDonough sent a message to employees after they were discovered in August reminding them of privacy laws.
“This message is a reminder that: Veteran information should only be accessed when necessary to accomplish officially authorized and assigned duties,” McDonough says, according to the memo obtained by Paste BN. “Viewing a Veteran’s records out of curiosity or concern – or for any purpose that is not directly related to officially authorized and assigned duties – is strictly prohibited.”
The VA Inspector General, an independent watchdog, briefed federal prosecutors. The inspector general is investigating along with the Justice Department, a VA source said.
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Data breaches, election meddling
Sensitive information presidential candidates keep under digital lock and key has often been sought-after by people seeking to have an impact on the race for office.
Justice Department investigators secured an indictment against three Iranian men suspected of hacking into former President Donald Trump's presidential campaign to influence the election just days before the breaches at the VA were made public.
A 37-page indictment released Friday doesn’t name Trump but the document makes clear the charges relate to an attempt to steal information from his campaign to leak to journalists and the presidential campaign of Joe Biden, before Biden chose to step aside in the election.
The men, Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, and Yasar Balaghi, are employed by the Iranian government's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military branch, according to the indictment. The U.S. government has not apprehended the trio whose last known residence was in Tehran.
Foreign governments aren't the only ones interested in Trump.
A former Internal Revenue Service contractor, Charles Littlejohn, took the federal job for the express purpose of leaking tax information about Trump and other wealthy individuals to news organizations, according to Justice Department prosecutors.
Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty in October to unauthorized disclosure of tax return and return information and was sentenced to five years in prison in January.
Littlejohn, who turned over the data to the New York Times and investigative news site ProPublica, said he acted out a “sincere, if misguided, belief” that he was acting in the public’s interest after Trump refused to release his tax returns even after being elected president, despite a 50-year tradition of disclosure, according to Manning's filing.
A Marine and a Minnesota Guard sergeant major
The VA has access to both sensitive information on Vance and Walz because they served in the military before running for elected office.
Vance enlisted in the military directly out of high school. He joined the Marines in 2003 and served as a combat correspondent – or military journalist – until 2007, according to military news site Task & Purpose. He was deployed to Iraq for six months in late 2005 where he escorted civilian press and wrote stories about marines, according to his memoir. He spent the last nine months of his service as the media relations officer for the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina, one of the largest military bases on the East Coast.
Was JD Vance a Marine? A look at the military record of Trump's VP pick
Walz served in the military for 24 years. He enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard at 17 in 1981 and transferred in 1996 to the Minnesota National Guard, where he served as command sergeant major, among the highest ranks for enlisted soldiers. He retired in 2005 to run for the U.S. House. His battalion deployed to Iraq shortly after Walz's retirement.
During his service, Walz responded to natural disasters, including floods and tornadoes in Minnesota and Nebraska, and was deployed overseas for months at a time, according to Minnesota Public Radio. In 2003, he was sent to Italy, where he served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Norway for joint training with other NATO militaries.
Tim Walz's military record: What to know about potential VP's National Guard service
Data breach at the VA: Over 100K veterans impacted
The unlawful access to the candidates' files is the latest controversy for the VA, which has come under fire for privacy breaches over the past decade.
Over 46,000 veterans had their private data breached in 2020, according to the department’s Office of Management. Unauthorized users accessed a VA Financial Services Center online application to steal payments meant for community health care providers for treating veterans. The department warned that the unauthorized users also gained access to sensitive data including Social Security numbers and financial information.
VA employees and contractors were found responsible for over 14,000 healthcare privacy violations at 167 facilities between 2010 and 2013, according to Healthcare Compliance Pros, a medical systems consulting company. The violations impacted over 100,000 veterans and over 500 VA employees.
Violations included snooping on people’s medical records and the loss of sensitive information such as Social Security numbers. Criminal investigators came across multiple instances of VA employees stealing veterans’ identities or prescriptions.
Unauthorized access of taxpayer information at the IRS
Littlejohn, who turned over Trump's tax returns, isn't the only IRS employee to unlawfully access agency data. The IRS substantiated more than 450 instances of willful, unauthorized access of taxpayer information by employees between fiscal years 2012 and 2021, according to a Government Accountability Office report released in 2022.
The watchdog agency found employees in violation in 27% of its 1,694 investigations.
In 2008, five Internal Revenue Service employees at the Fresno, California, return processing center were charged with computer fraud and unauthorized access to tax return information for peeking into taxpayers' files.
Prosecutors said at the time that IRS employees are only authorized to access the accounts of taxpayers who write in. They're not allowed to access friends, relatives, neighbors, and celebrities.
Contributing: Melissa Cruz and George Fabe Russell.