U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis was charged with three counts of exceeding his authorized access to a government computer, according to a statement issued by acting Wyoming U.S. Attorney John Green.
Each count is a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, Voorhis, 38, faces a maximum punishment of three years in prison and a $300,000 fine.
This is a follow up to last year's governor's campaign. There have now been charges filed against a Homeland Security official in the Bush Administration for illegally leaking confidential FBI info to the Beauprez for Governor campaign. The Beauprez for Governor campaign then used this information in a some nasty attack ads late in the race.
My belief is that this also ties into the various dirty tricks we've seen regarding the US Attorney Generals. Its a different sort of case. This time it involves an officer in ICE (Immigration) who leaked what should have been confidential information from an FBI database to a Republican campaign.
It just goes to show there is nothing the Republicans won't do to win an election. And its a variation on the same sort of manipulations of the legal process that we've seen before where the Republicans will do anything to try to win an election.
This is a follow up to last year. We are now at the point where activities from a year ago have been investigated and now charges are being filed against the officer who leaked this.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis was charged with three counts of exceeding his authorized access to a government computer, according to a statement issued by acting Wyoming U.S. Attorney John Green.
Each count is a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, Voorhis, 38, faces a maximum punishment of three years in prison and a $300,000 fine.
And we have a person who was then a Republican congressperson and candidate for governor not only condoning these illegal actions by the officer, but very much praising the officer.
Back during the campaign, Ritter angrily responded to the attack ads and the allegations that Voorhis had leaked the information to Beauprez's camp. Beauprez at the time praised the action as that of a heroic whistleblower expressing frustration over the plea bargains.
"For a law enforcement officer to break the law and be congratulated by a congressman is something all Coloradans should be disgusted by," Ritter said at the time.
At the time of the campaign, Beauprez denied knowing the source of the information was Voorhis, a registered Republican from Morrison.
Beauprez, then a Republican congressman, described his anonymous source as a frustrated law man who'd had a "belly-full" over Ritter granting plea deals to illegal immigrants who committed serious crimes.
The agent "did the right thing," Beauprez said in October 2006 as the November election neared.
"By exposing the truth, he broke the law," Beauprez said of the source of the information at the time. But Beauprez's campaign stressed neither the candidate nor his staff had any idea their source might have obtained the information improperly.
Beauprez maintained that stance on Thursday - pointing out the charges against Voorhis were still allegations and hadn't been proven in court.
"To this day, I've never met the man or talked with him on the phone," Beauprez said.
Of course the candidate never met the man. That's what staff is for.
See this story in the Rocky Mountain News.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/...