VA staff reviewed Vance’s medical records, Walz: sources

WASHINGTON − More than a dozen Veterans Health Administration employees accessed the medical records of vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz in violation of federal health privacy laws, two sources told USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity because of a criminal investigation into the violations.

Justice Department investigators have not yet determined whether the records were released or why employees had access to them. Most VA employees who opened the files used work computers in government offices. According to a VA source who was not authorized to speak publicly, among those with access to the records, at least one was a physician and the other was a VA employee who had been reviewing the records for an extended period of time.

The disclosures of violations come on the eve of the candidates and the only direct debate before the November elections.

According to an official briefed on the investigation, some employees told investigators they were simply curious about Walz and Vance’s records because both men are being investigated during the presidential campaign. In some cases, veterans’ service records are available in VA medical records, the source said.

VA spokesman Terrence Hayes strongly condemned the violations and said the department reported them to law enforcement.

“We take the privacy of the veterans we serve very seriously and have stringent policies in place to protect their information,” Hayes said. “Any attempt by VA personnel to gain improper access to veterans’ records is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Spokespeople for Walz, the Democratic candidate for Minnesota governor, and Vance, the Republican candidate for senator from Ohio, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The VA notified the Vance and Walz campaigns of the breaches, and VA Secretary Denis McDonough sent a message to employees after they were discovered in August, reminding them of privacy laws.

“This message is a reminder that: Veterans’ information may only be accessed as necessary to fulfill officially authorized and assigned responsibilities,” McDonough says, according to the memo obtained by USA TODAY. “Viewing a veteran’s records out of curiosity or concern – or for any purpose not directly related to officially authorized and assigned duties – is strictly prohibited.”

Virginia’s Inspector General, an independent watchdog, told federal prosecutors. A VA source said the inspector general is investigating in conjunction with the Department of Justice.

Data breaches, election interference

The sensitive information that presidential candidates store in a digital key is often sought by those seeking to influence the race for office.

Justice Department investigators secured an indictment against three Iranians suspected of hacking into former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to influence the election, days before the VA breaches became public.

The 37-page indictment released Friday does not name Trump, but the document makes it clear that the charges relate to an attempt to steal information from his campaign to leak it to journalists and Joe Biden’s presidential campaign before Biden decided to concede the election. .

The indictment says the men, Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi, are employed by the military branch of the Iranian government’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The US government did not detain the three, whose last known residence was in Tehran.

Foreign governments aren’t the only ones interested in Trump.

Former Internal Revenue Service employee Charles Littlejohn accepted the federal position solely to leak tax information about Trump and other wealthy individuals to news organizations, according to Justice Department prosecutors.

Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, pleaded guilty in October to unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information and was sentenced to five years in prison in January.

Littlejohn, who provided the data to the New York Times and the investigative website ProPublica, said he acted in the “sincere, if mistaken, belief” that he was acting in the public interest after Trump refused to release his tax returns even after Manning’s records show that he was elected president despite a 50-year tradition of disclosure.

Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps and Minnesota Guard

The VA has access to both confidential information about Vance and Walz because they served in the military before running for elected office.

Vance enlisted in the military immediately after graduating from high school. He joined the Marine Corps in 2003 and served until 2007 as a combat correspondent or military journalist, according to the military news site Task & Purpose. According to his memoirs, at the end of 2005 he was sent to Iraq for six months, where he escorted the civilian press and wrote articles about Marines. He spent the last nine months of his tour of duty as a media relations specialist at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, one of the largest military bases on the East Coast.

Was JD Vance a Marine? A look at the military records surrounding Trump’s vice presidential pick

Walz served in the military for 24 years. In 1981, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard, and in 1996 he transferred to the Minnesota National Guard, where he served as a command sergeant major, one of the highest ranks among enlisted soldiers. In 2005, he retired to run for the United States House of Representatives. His battalion deployed to Iraq shortly after Walz retired.

During his service, Walz responded to natural disasters, including floods and tornadoes in Minnesota and Nebraska, and then spent many months overseas, according to Minnesota Public Radio. In 2003, he was sent to Italy, where he served with the European Security Forces in support of the war in Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Norway as part of joint training with other NATO armed forces.

Tim Walz military records: What to know about the vice president’s potential National Guard service

VA Data Breach: Impacting Over 100,000 veterans

The unlawful access to applicant records is the latest controversy for the VA, which has come under fire over the past decade for privacy violations.

According to the department’s Office of Management, the personal information of more than 46,000 veterans was compromised in 2020. Unauthorized users accessed the VA Financial Services Center online application to steal payments intended for local health care providers for veterans’ treatment. The department warned that unauthorized users also gained access to sensitive data, including Social Security numbers and financial information.

VA employees and contractors were found responsible for more than 14,000 health care privacy breaches at 167 facilities between 2010 and 2013, according to Healthcare Compliance Pros, a health systems consulting firm. The breaches affected more than 100,000 veterans and more than 500 VA employees.

The breaches included spying on people’s medical records and the loss of sensitive information such as Social Security numbers. Investigators have encountered numerous cases of VA employees stealing veterans’ identities or prescriptions.

Unauthorized access to taxpayer information with the IRS

Littlejohn, who turned over Trump’s tax returns, is not the only IRS employee who unlawfully gained access to the agency’s records. According to a Government Accountability Office report published in 2022, the IRS identified more than 450 cases of intentional, unauthorized employee access to taxpayer information in tax years 2012–2021.

The watchdog agency found that employees committed violations in 27% of its 1,694 investigations.

In 2008, five Internal Revenue Service employees at a return processing center in Fresno, California, were charged with computer fraud and unauthorized access to tax return information for looking into taxpayer files.

Prosecutors said at the time that IRS employees only had access to the accounts of taxpayers who made payments. They have no access to friends, relatives, neighbors or celebrities.

Contributor: Melissa Cruz AND George Fabe Russell.