State Department employees snooped through the passport files of three presidential candidates — Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain — and the department’s inspector general is investigating.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the violations of McCain and Clinton’s passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the unauthorized access of Obama’s records and a separate search was conducted.
The incidents raise questions as to whether the information was accessed for political purposes and why two contractors involved in the Obama search were dismissed before investigators had a chance to interview them.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with all three candidates on Friday and expressed her regrets. In the meantime, State Department officials headed to Capitol Hill to brief the candidates’ staffs. The State Department said the Justice Department would be monitoring the probe in case it needs to get involved.
MORE DETAILS
* In Clinton’s case, an individual last summer accessed her file as part of a training session involving another State Department worker.
* Obama’s records were accessed on three separate occasions: Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and as recently as March 14.
* McCain’s file also was accessed on March 14.
