Slashdot Mirror
32 Senators Want To Know If US Regulators Halted Equifax Probe (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Earlier this week, a Reuters report suggested that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had halted its investigation into last year's massive Equifax data breach. Reuters sources said that even basic steps expected in such a probe hadn't been taken and efforts had stalled since Mick Mulvaney took over as head of the CFPB late last year. Now, 31 Democratic senators and one Independent have written a letter to Mulvaney asking if that is indeed the case and if so, why.
In their letter, the senators expressed their concern over these reports and reiterated the duty the CFPB has to not only investigate the breach but to bring action against Equifax if deemed necessary. "Consumer reporting agencies and the data they collect play a central role in consumers' access to credit and the fair and competitive pricing of that credit," they wrote. "Therefore, the CFPB has a duty to supervise consumer reporting agencies, investigate how this breach has or will harm consumers and bring enforcement actions as necessary."
In their letter, the senators expressed their concern over these reports and reiterated the duty the CFPB has to not only investigate the breach but to bring action against Equifax if deemed necessary. "Consumer reporting agencies and the data they collect play a central role in consumers' access to credit and the fair and competitive pricing of that credit," they wrote. "Therefore, the CFPB has a duty to supervise consumer reporting agencies, investigate how this breach has or will harm consumers and bring enforcement actions as necessary."
To look like they're doing something; what else? Of course nothing is being done. The director of the agency is fundamentally opposed to his own agency existing, requested a budget of $0, and won't even go after abusive payday lenders. That's par for the course with Trump; appointing someone who hates the agency they're now leading.
How about 3 to start with, I'm betting there are others:
Executive Order 13526 and 18 U.S.C Sec. 793(f) of the federal code make it unlawful to send or store classified information on personal email.
Note the code says nothing about intent.
Section 1236.22 of the 2009 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements states that
Agencies that allow employees to send and receive official electronic mail messages using a system not operated by the agency must ensure that Federal records sent or received on such systems are preserved in the appropriate agency record keeping system.
Just guessing here, but I don't believe deleting any emails with BleachBit is allowed under this statute.
Violation of the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA)
Veterans for a Strong America filed a lawsuit against the State Department for violations of the FOIA. They had filed the FOIA request because of Benghazi and specifically asked for any personal email accounts and her private server emails were not turned over as required.
Oh hell, why not add a 4th:
18 U.S. Code 1519 - Destruction, alteration or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy
Clinton's emails were subpoena'd by the FBI on March 4, 2015, Her campaign claimed they were deleted prior to the subpoena but the FBI investigation determined the emails were actually deleted sometime between March 25 -31, basically 3 weeks after the subpoena.