Hatch says 'unethical conduct' occurred

WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch has interrupted his recent vow of silence — at least a bit — about the ongoing investigation into GOP raiding of Democratic files on his committee's computer system.

He and committee ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., issued a joint written statement giving an update about that probe initiated by Hatch and conducted by Senate Sergeant at Arms William Pickle. Hatch had been declining comment about the probe.

As already widely reported, Hatch acknowledged Thursday that the probe "unfortunately confirmed that two former Republican Judiciary Committee staff members were involved in wrongfully accessing and downloading thousands of Democratic computer files over many months."

Leahy wrote, "Democratic senators were surprised and concerned by the scope of the wrongful surveillance, in terms of the large number of confidential files involved, the number of senators affected, and the fact that this theft occurred over such a long period of time."

One of the two aides who resigned was Manuel Miranda, who worked for Hatch but later became a counsel to Republican Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., in charge of confirming judicial nominees. He resigned last week and charged in a letter that many GOP staffers knew they could easily access Democratic files from their computers.

Miranda has said no crimes were committed as Democrats made no effort to protect their computer files and said it was akin to leaving their documents on GOP desks.

Miranda also filed an ethics complaint against committee Democrats about activities outlined by those memos. Some leaked to the press revealed that liberal groups worked with Democrats to target nominee Miguel Estrada specifically because he is Hispanic, and they did not want the GOP to gain favor with Hispanics.

Other memos showed that aides to Sen. Ted Kennedy and liberal groups wanted to delay confirmation of two 6th Circuit nominees until after the appeals court heard a key affirmative-action case.

A second staffer who resigned has never been identified by the committee.

Hatch also wrote Thursday, "While it is premature to judge whether any crime has been committed, it is clear that unethical conduct has occurred."

He said that after several Democrats had called for a criminal investigation, and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., called on the House floor for indictment of the two former Hatch aides.