WASHINGTON — Revelations that at least one Republican staff member rifled through the computer files of his Democratic counterparts on the Senate Judiciary Committee have driven relations to a new low among members of a panel already split by fights over judicial nominees.
Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle has called in Secret Service computer forensics experts, interviewed dozens of staff members and confiscated computer hard drives to determine who accessed parts of 15 memos dealing with Democratic strategy on judicial nominations, staff members said Thursday. At one point, investigators sealed off the room where the Judiciary Committee computer server is located and posted a guard at the door.
Pickle is expected to report to the committee next week on his investigation. But Vermont Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the committee's ranking Democrat, already has installed a separate server for the Democratic senators and their staff to prevent further transgressions. Democrats and Republicans on the committee previously had shared a server.
Speaking on Thursday at the committee's first meeting since the investigation began, Leahy described President Bush's appointment of Judge Charles W. Pickering Sr. to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, his renomination of Claude Allen to a seat on the 4th Circuit and "the pilfering of Democratic offices' computer files by Republican staff" as "disappointing developments" that made it hard for committee members to work together.
The unauthorized access of computer memos "by Republican employees both on and off the committee ... is a serious breach of trust, morals, and possibly the rules of the U.S. Senate," Leahy said. The leaked memos have embarrassed Democrats because they spoke of how liberal interest groups suggested that they try to block Bush's judicial nominees.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), a committee member, spoke more bluntly. "If we are going to have any functioning bipartisanship on the Judiciary Committee, any staff member who participated in this kind of activity should be fired," she said in an interview.
Democrats demanded the investigation late last year, after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the committee chairman, said in a November news conference that at least one member of his staff had "improperly accessed" the memos, which were leaked later to a conservative website that tracks judicial nominations. The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times later wrote articles and editorials based on the memos.
