EXCLUSIVE: Two best House Republicans are pissed off with the Department of Defense over its lengthen in offering solutions to a sequence of questions relating to its fallacious liberate of army data belonging to a minimum of 11 other people, together with a number of Republicans who ran for Congress in remaining 12 months’s midterm elections.
Earlier this month, House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., despatched a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin challenging solutions concerning the Air Force’s liberate of army group of workers information of provider contributors in quest of elected administrative center to an opposition analysis company.
The letter, despatched Feb. 13, asked that Austin give you the committee with an inventory of the improperly launched data of congressional applicants over the last two years, a standing file at the notifications to these impacted via the fallacious liberate and the rules and insurance policies concerning the safeguards for right kind liberate.
Comer and Rogers additionally requested for info on whether or not there are any lively investigations or legal referrals concerning the leak.
DCCC, AIR FORCE UNDER FIRE OVER IMPROPER RELEASE OF GOP CANDIDATES’ MILITARY RECORDS: ‘BEYOND DISTURBING’
House Armed Services Committee chair Mike Rogers, R-Ala., proper, and House Oversight Committee chair James Comer are pissed off with the DOD’s lengthen in offering responses to their Feb. 13 letter. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc., Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg, Eric Lee/Bloomberg)
The lawmakers gave a Feb. 27 cut-off date to supply solutions, however the Defense Department has but to reply. A supply with wisdom of the Republicans’ push to get solutions concerning the leaked data instructed Fox that the Defense Department knowledgeable the committee it could supply a solution to the letter from Rogers and Comer via March 17.
“It’s unacceptable that Department of Defense continues to delay answering our committee on the egregious mishandling of private service member records,” Rogers instructed Fox News Digital Wednesday. “Our service members deserve better. We will continue to press DOD until we get answers.”
Similarly, Comer instructed Fox that the Defense Department’s habits “sets a dangerous precedent” for individuals who have had their data leaked.
The U.S. Department of Defense seal on a the lecturn within the media briefing room on the Pentagon Dec. 12, 2013, in Washington, D.C. (Aul J. Richards/AFP by way of Getty Image)
“The Department of Defense’s failure to provide timely answers to Congress’ investigation into the release of official records to a private research firm is discouraging news for the men and women of the armed forces that have lost trust that their private data is protected,” Comer stated. “This behavior by a government agency sets a dangerous precedent for victims of leaked information.
“Chairman Rogers and I are dedicated to getting solutions as to how this personal knowledge was once bought and launched with out consent. We is not going to accept some other reaction from the Department of Defense.”
HOUSE GOP DEMANDS ANSWERS FROM PENTAGON ON LEAKED RECORDS OF CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES
“It is very important that the women and men of the Armed Forces believe their management’s skill to offer protection to personal group of workers knowledge from fallacious disclosure,” the letter from the GOP congressmen states. “The liberate of Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF) out of doors the right kind processes violates Department of Defense (DOD) coverage and the Privacy Act of 1974, and if finished pursuant to a public request, might also violate protections afforded beneath the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The letter added that the Air Force informed the committee that it released records for 11 individuals between October 2021 and December 2022 to the private research firm that “allegedly misrepresented itself” to obtain the records.
“This behavior via the Air Force is, at a minimal, unacceptable. The behavior via the analysis company is reasonably in all probability legal,” the congressmen wrote.
Last week, it was revealed that Due Diligence Group, the research firm that obtained the military personnel records of congressional candidates, was funded by two campaign groups working to elect Democrats to the House and Senate.
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) gave $173,000 to Due Diligence Group during the 2022 election season, including three separate payments of over $30,000 after the election.
RESEARCH GROUP THAT IMPROPERLY OBTAINED MILITARY RECORDS OF GOP CANDIDATES WAS PAID BY TWO DEM COMMITTEES
The firm also received more than $110,000 from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) between January 2021 and December 2022, according to public FEC filings.
Located in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., the Pentagon has served as the epicenter of the U.S. military, housing the Department of Defense, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force since the 1940s. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
Besides the DSCC and the DCCC, no other campaigns, PACs or committees that itemize disbursements employed Due Diligence Group, according to a search of FEC records.
The Air Force said earlier this month that Abraham Payton, a partner of Due Diligence Group, requested and was provided with the private military records of several Republican midterm candidates ahead of their elections.
Payton’s bio page is no longer available online, but an archived version of Due Diligence Group’s website shows he “joined a democratic SuperPAC in 2011,” where he “produced over 100 opposition analysis books and controlled over 4,000 public file requests.”
On Feb. 8, GOP midterm candidates Sam Peters of Nevada and Kevin Dellicker of Pennsylvania were reportedly notified that Payton from Due Diligence Group made “more than one requests” for their military personnel records last year.
The Democrat-linked firm specializes in “the use of public data analysis to supply our shoppers with the data and insights had to power strategic decision-making,” in line with its web page.
Congressman-elect Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, attends orientation for newly elected members of the 118th U.S. Congress following the 2022 midterm elections at the Hyatt Hotel in Washington Nov. 13, 2022. (REUTERS/Michael A. McCoy)
Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, have called for an investigation into potential illegal activity concerning the release of their records after they were both notified by the Air Force that their military records were released improperly while they were campaigning in the 2022 midterm elections.
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Former GOP House candidate Jennifer-Ruth Green was another veteran whose personnel records, including details of a sexual assault that occurred during her time in the Air Force, were released to the public without her consent. The Air Force admitted in a letter that her military personnel records were released to a third party “with out right kind redaction.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., additionally accused the Air Force Monday of most probably leaking her army data and failing to reply to authentic correspondence challenging solutions a few sequence of leaks that has affected quite a few different GOP lawmakers and previous applicants.
The Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to Fox News Digital’s request for remark.
Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie, Aubrie Spady, Thomas Phippen and Aaron Kliegman contributed to this text.
