As GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz—who called for Thursday's "emergency" interrogation of FBI director James Comey—led an inquiry into whether Sec. Hillary Clinton had mishandled internal emails, the CIA was probably holding its breath that he wouldn't accidentally publicize any more classified information on live television.
Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight Committee, has had several brushes of his own with disclosing classified information. In July of 2011, the Washington Post reported accusations that his Transportation panel “illegally” leaked "sensitive security information" from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to the media.
The following year, Chaffetz bypassed leaks altogether and just blabbed the classified stuff on live television, reported Dana Milbank.
When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA’s cover. [...]
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was the first to unmask the spooks. “Point of order! Point of order!” he called out as a State Department security official, seated in front of an aerial photo of the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, described the chaotic night of the attack. “We’re getting into classified issues that deal with sources and methods that would be totally inappropriate in an open forum such as this.”
Now that Chaffetz had alerted potential bad guys that something valuable was in the photo, the chairman, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), attempted to lock the barn door through which the horse had just bolted. “I would direct that that chart be taken down,” he said, although it already had been on C-SPAN. “In this hearing room, we’re not going to point out details of what may still in fact be a facility of the United States government or more facilities.”
May still be a facility? The plot thickened — and Chaffetz gave more hints. “I believe that the markings on that map were terribly inappropriate,” he said, adding that “the activities there could cost lives.”
After Chaffetz made sure to doggy ear the sensitive intel, he later called for a "classified briefing." Smart!
Btw, if you have any follow-up questions for Rep. Chaffetz about the incident, you can just send inquiries to the gmail address listed on his business card, because why use an officially secure, government-sanctioned .gov address?
And then there's Trey Gowdy, who's led the endless string of Benghazi inquiries, airing the name of a CIA asset last year. Milbank again:
Gowdy this month made the sensational allegation that one of the e-mails on Clinton’s private server contained the name of a CIA source [...] Gowdy, completing the comedy of errors, then released the e-mail publicly on Sunday with the person’s name — apparently unaware that the State Department had failed to redact it.
Yep, these are the sleuths questioning whether Sec. Clinton intentionally and flagrantly ignored a "C" (meaning confidential) in the body of three emails that bore no other indication they included classified emails. Perhaps her real misstep was doing it internally with colleagues instead of just making it public, à la Chaffetz and Gowdy.