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Punishments
ranged from a letter of reprimand to suspensions without pay for
up to 45 days, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said
in a statement.
One person found to have disclosed information on Republican
congressman Jason Chaffetz to the Washington Post has resigned
from the service, Johnson said, noting that privacy laws
prevented disclosure of more details.
The latest embarrassment for the Secret Service came as it seeks
to recover from a leadership crisis and mend a culture of
covering up mistakes that some trace back 12 years to when it
was pulled out of the Treasury Department and absorbed into the
sprawling new Department of Homeland Security.
More than 40 Secret Service employees accessed the personal
information of Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight
Committee, who was leading a probe of the agency, according to a
report in September by the Department of Homeland Security
Inspector General.
Soon after Chaffetz held a hearing on the agency in March,
various media reported that he had been rejected for a Secret
Service job in 2003.
"Like many others I was appalled by the episode reflected in the
Inspector General's report, which brought real discredit to the
Secret Service," Johnson said. Access to such information has
been tightened, he added.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Eric Walsh; Editing by Richard
Chang)
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