TSA nominee gave inconsistent information to Congress
Admits to making illegal searches of database himself
WASHINGTON - The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration gave Congress inconsistent information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
The disclosure was made as pressure builds from Democrats on Capitol Hill for quick January confirmation of Erroll Southers, whose nomination has been held up by GOP opponents. In the aftermath of an attempted airline bombing on Christmas Day, calls have intensified for lawmakers to install permanent leadership at the TSA, a critical agency in enforcing airline security.
Southers, a former FBI agent, has described inconsistencies in his accounts to Congress as “inadvertent’’ and the result of poor memory of an incident that dates back 20 years. He said in a Nov. 20 letter to key senators obtained by the Post that he accepted full responsibility long ago for a “grave error in judgment’’ in accessing confidential criminal records about his estranged wife’s new boyfriend.
His letter to Joe Lieberman, independent of Connecticut and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and the ranking Republican, Susan M. Collins of Maine, attempts to correct statements about the episode that were made in a sworn affidavit on Oct. 22. The letter has not been publicly disclosed.
Southers did not respond to a request for an interview, and his wife declined to comment.
Southers’s admission that he was involved in a questionable use of law enforcement background data has been a source of concern among civil libertarians, who believe the TSA performs a delicate balancing act in tapping into passenger information to find terrorists while also protecting citizens’ privacy.
Southers first described the episode in his October affidavit, telling the Senate panel that two decades ago he asked a San Diego Police Department employee to access confidential criminal records about the boyfriend. Southers said he had had been censured by superiors at the FBI. He described the incident as isolated and expressed regrets about it.
The committee approved his nomination Nov. 19. One day later, Southers wrote to Lieberman and Collins saying his first account was incorrect. After reviewing documents, he recalled that he had twice conducted the database searches himself, downloaded confidential law enforcement records about his wife’s boyfriend, and passed information on to the Police Department employee, the letter said.
It is a violation of the federal Privacy Act to access such confidential information without proper cause. It is a misdemeanor that can carry a fine of not more than $5,000.
In his letter, Southers said that he simply forgot the circumstances of the searches, which occurred in 1987 and 1988 when he was worried about his wife and their son, who had begun living with the boyfriend. The letter said that “during a period of great personal turmoil, I made a serious error in judgment by using my official position with the FBI to resolve a personal problem.’’ He did not specify the data system he accessed.
Meanwhile, the TSA backed down yesterday from its demand that an Internet travel writer immediately provide information on how he obtained an airline security directive.
Anthony Elia, attorney for writer Chris Elliott, said the TSA extended the response period through Jan. 20. The TSA subpoena, dated Tuesday, originally demanded a response by last night
Elia now has the option of challenging the subpoena in federal court or negotiating a settlement with the TSA.
