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Democrat to Plead Guilty to Steele Credit Report Crime
A former Democratic operative will plead guilty to illegally obtaining Republican Senate candidate Michael Steele's credit report. Lauren Weiner, who was a researcher for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) last year when she accessed the credit data, has worked out a plea agreement, said her attorney Whitney C. Ellerman, and will likely be sentenced to 150 hours of community service with no jail time or fines. Weiner used Steele’s Social Security number, reportedly obtained from court records, to "fraudulently and illegally obtain his credit report,” according to a source cited by NewsMax in November. The Fair Credit Reporting Act makes it a federal crime to knowingly and willfully obtain a person's credit report without their consent or under false pretenses. The crime carries a maximum of two years imprisonment.
Story Continues Below Steele, the lieutenant governor of Maryland, said he would be disappointed if the DSCC is not held accountable for the actions of its operatives, the Washington Times reports. "It is a stain on the entire organization and the operations of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee," he declared. "It's the kind of politics that turns people off and demeans the electoral process." Maryland Republican Party Chairman John M. Kane charged that the Wiener case shows the DSCC engaged in "dirty politics." "The DSCC perpetrated an unlawful and disgraceful attack on Lt. Gov. Michael Steele," he said. "The theft of his identity to wrongfully obtain his credit report is another example of how low some Democrats will sink in their quest for power." Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, DSCC chairman and a strong advocate of laws that combat identity theft, declined to comment on Weiner's plea.
The DSCC has said it did not approve or have prior knowledge of Weiner's actions. But DSCC spokesman Phil Singer acknowledged on Thursday that the committee has paid the legal fees for Weiner and Katie Barge, who was the committee's research director and supervised Weiner at the time she obtained the credit report. Both women resigned from the committee in September. The plea agreement appears to end the U.S. Attorney's Office's six-month investigation without implicating Barge or the committee's leadership, according to the Times. Barge came to the committee directly from the liberal George Soros-funded Web site Media Matters, founded to combat the influence of conservative news commentators.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Inside Cover Stories
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