According to a new report from the Washington Post, the partisan House Jan. 6 committee has leaked thousands of social security numbers, including the social security numbers of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and many other Republicans.
The leak occurred when the committee publicly released hundreds of documents at the end of 2022.
Among those documents was a spreadsheet containing the social security numbers of individuals who visited the White House in December 2020.
While many of the social security numbers were redacted, about 1900 were not.
The details
According to Fox News, many of the leaked social security numbers belonged to allies of former President Donald Trump.
Fox reports:
Those whose Social Security information was made public include South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and her family, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R), former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
The outlet adds, “others include an unnamed federal district court judge and a federal appeals court judge, at least half a dozen people who testified before the Jan. 6 committee, and a lawyer who represented another witness before the committee.”
Noem responds
Noem is now asking the federal government for answers about the leak. She recently posted to Twitter a message containing a letter that her lawyers sent to government officials. Take a look:
My lawyers have asked the @WhiteHouse, the @USNatArchives, and @BennieGThompson which of them is responsible for leaking the Social Security Numbers of me, my husband, my 3 kids, and my son-in-law.
What specific measures and remedies will be taken to protect our identities? pic.twitter.com/HWBu5ukWPP
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) January 6, 2023
Fox separately reports:
That leak included Noem along with her husband, three children, and son-in-law, who according to the White House logs visited the outgoing President Donald Trump on Dec. 14, 2020. Noem shared that her visit was in an “official capacity.”
Was it on purpose?
Outlets are reporting that the leak was not intentional. But, that is not the easiest thing to believe considering the partisan nature of the committee, which is populated by Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans.
The spreadsheet with the social security numbers has been removed.
Members of the committee, at the time of this writing, had yet to comment on the matter. Trump, though, has.
He released a statement, saying:
The January 6th Committee should be held liable for leaking this incredible amount of Social Security Numbers. These people are devastated by this having been done to them—and for all illegality in not reporting the facts. The only thing that was accurate was their illegally leaking, along with the Radical Archives, almost 2,000 Social Security numbers!