the issue began in June of 2018, and that only a small number of additional requests for information from personnel files were improperly processed.
If the issue “began” in June of 2018 then that means it continued thereafter.
“only a small number of additional requests” means that there were other people whose information was (a) requested; nad (b) supplied. So who are they, who requested the info, when was it supplied, and have they notified the individuals in question of this breach?
McConnell was using the confirmations as an excuse to cancel or delay the summer recess and keep incumbents off the campaign trail. Since there are many more Democrats up for re-election, this would benefit Republicans. I was a lose-lose for Democrats.
The real mystery here is how CLF or AR knew that the USPS even had a file on Ms. Spanberger. She didn’t work for the USPS - she merely applied for a security clearance, years ago, when applying for a position there, one that she didn’t get - she went to work for the CIA instead. So, it wouldn’t even show up on a resumé.
Who would know to go digging for this? Even a RWNJ working for the USPS wouldn’t be aware of the file’s existence.
I found the following on the National Personnel Records website. It must be assumed that anyone working with FOIA requests in any government agency would understand these simple easily understood rules.
FOIA and Official Personnel Folders (OPF)
Most information in a Federal (non-archival) Official Personnel Folder (OPF) is not releasable to the general public without the written consent of the individual whose record is involved. The Freedom of Information Act does allow, however, for certain information to be released without the individual’s consent. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has determined that the following information can be released to the public:
Name
Past and present positions
Past and present titles
Past and present salaries
Past and present grades
Past and present job locations
No Government employee working a FOIA request would ever consider releasing a full personnel file without the signed permission of the subject. I would be very surprised if this violation was not done knowingly. Every Postal employee who touched this request needs to be investigated for criminal activity.
How is it mail fraud? They lawfully asked for information pursuant to FOIA. The government improperly and stupidly provided information it was legally required not to provide but, once it was provided, it wasn’t illegal to distribute it or publish it.
Who said anything about sorting letters ( which is now done by optical scanning machines )? She was seeking a position as a postal security inspector and the PO requested all files on her. THere’s no mail sorting involved.
There are procedures for the return of classified and sensitive information. Typically, they involve locking the material in a safe or a secure file cabinet until someone with the right clearance to pick it up arrives.
That’s a mystery to you? How about a wing nut in the Post Office with access to such files spots it and calls up the GOP and says…I got something for you…
If I asked the DoD for the plans to the newest stealth bomber, and they gave them to me, and then I gave them to a bunch of people, would it be safe to assume I had no worries about having done it?
A thing I’ve learned over the years of the truth of the possibly apocryphal Napoleonic maxim that, one should never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. But that’s not the same thing as saying the possibly should be precluded. Every person who touched the file absolutely should purely have the living shit investigated out of them.
You should quit while you’re ahead. Or sort of. How about this…a low level person moves up in life…or some one seeks a high level position in the USPS?
“Spots it,” how? Imagine hundreds of thousands of personnel files. How would anyone “spot it?” They’d be lucky to find it even if they knew it was there.
Pretty sure they can’t. This was so far from SOP that mal intent is going to be very easy to prove.
What gets me is how quickly this was done. This is not how FOIA works a bureaucracy.
None of this answers the question of how the CLF/RNC knew to send a FOIA request to the USPS in the first place. It only makes sense to do that if they already knew somehow that USPS would respond by sending them non-public personnel files.
Exactly!
While it is important to get to the bottom of what went wrong at the USPS, the more important question to me is why no one at the PACs didn’t return the documents as soon as they saw what they were. They knew, or should have known, that it wasn’t something they should be looking at, let alone use against her. There is a slight possibility that the USPS was a screw-up rather than deliberate, there is no chance that the PAC didn’t know what they had and that it should be returned unread ASAP. Paul Ryan has some explaining to do.
That’s the piece that has me head-scratching. None of the theories posted above passes the “common sense” test. Who would even know that she had filled out an application there?
At least with Arthur Picard, he told us about his earlier attempts at finding employment:
Arthur Picard: “… last season, I was up for the lead in the Broadway production of The Gypsy Lover.”
Roger De Bris: “What happened?”
Arthur: “I didn’t get it.”
