According to a new report, the Air Force has found the culprit who illegally leaked the personnel records of Indiana Republican Jennifer-Ruth Green.
Two GOP Congressmen spoke with the Air Force’s Inspector General, who says they are now investigating whether the leaker had an accomplice and had political or financial motives.
Here’s more via Fox News:
The Air Force has taken responsibility for the release of an Indiana Republican House candidate’s confidential personnel records that contained details about her sexual assault, according to two GOP congressmen from the Hoosier State.
In a joint statement that was first shared with Fox News Digital, Indiana GOP Rep. Jim Banks, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, and Indiana GOP Rep. Larry Bucshon, described a discussion they had with Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Stephen Davis about the Air Force Personnel Center’s release of Indiana 1st Congressional District candidate Air Force Lt. Col. Jennifer-Ruth Green’s confidential personnel records:
“On yesterday’s call, the Air Force took full responsibility for improperly releasing Lt. Col. Green’s confidential personnel records to an opposition research firm just weeks before the midterm election. Lt. Gen. Davis informed us that the leaker has been identified and will be held accountable.”
The congressmen also stated that there is an investigation underway to determine “whether the leaker had a political or financial motive” or had an accomplice in the release of Green’s records.
“The Air Force completed its preliminary investigation and is currently investigating whether the leaker had a political or financial motive, whether the leaker acted alone, and if the Air Force needs to strengthen policies related to its handling of confidential records,” the congressmen said.
There’s another dimension to this that was highlighted by Greg Price. He pointed out that Politico, who published the leaked information, claimed they got it from a ‘public records request’. But now it turns out that they got it from an ‘opposition research firm’:
Politico reported against the wishes of Republican candidate @JenRuthGreen that she was a survivor of sexual assault.
They said they obtained her records via a “public records request.”
Here is the Air Force saying today they were leaked to “an opposition research firm” pic.twitter.com/CuqWcWUH6r
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022
Christina Pushaw added that these opposition research firms do public record requests all the time to give the media cover:
Oppo researchers do public records requests all the time to give fodder to their buddies in the media, the big red flag here is that a record of a victim of sexual assault in the military would not be a PUBLIC record responsive to a records request. So how’d they get it?
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) October 26, 2022
As she notes, this is clearly not something that would be subject to a public record request and I think Politico probably knew that when they agreed to publish the illegally leaked information.
As as Greg adds:
Do @adamwren and @BDayspring want to explain why they completely lied?
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022