WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- GOP staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were accused Thursday of passing along secret Democratic files to the media.
Quoting Senate officials, the Boston Globe said Republican staff members gained access to the restricted files through a computer glitch and monitored the files from the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003.
Looking over hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight and how, the report said.
Republicans countered by saying Democrats knew of the glitch but did nothing about it. Democrats denied knowledge of the problem before last November.
Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, described himself as "mortified" by the charges and said one staff member had been placed on leave.
An investigation is under way into how excerpts from 15 Democratic memos showed up in the pages of the conservative-leaning newspapers and were posted to a Web site last November.
