The federal govt. exposed South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s (R) social security number and her family’s social security numbers as well in the records from the House committee that were made public on January 6. She is now seeking answers.
In a post on Twitter on Friday, Noem made the letter her attorneys filed to federal agencies public in order to request a reaction regarding the information that had been made widely available.
She tweeted, “My attorneys have asked @WhiteHouse, @BennieGThompson, @USNatArchives, which among them is responsible for releasing the Social Security Numbers of not only me, but also my husband, my three children, and my son-in-law. What concrete steps and remedies are planned to safeguard our identities?”
In a dossier of prominent visitors to the White House in Dec. 2020, Noem’s social security numbers and the private details of roughly 2,000 others were published alongside her own.
“These visiting records were made by the National Archives and used for exhibits at the committee hearing on January 6th. Protected Personal Information in the visitor logs was supposed to have been be redacted in accordance with the law before they were published as exhibits, but that wasn’t done,” according to the letter from Noem’s attorneys.
The governor and her family’s personal information was published, the letter claimed, in breach of the Privacy Act of 1974, which could result in further legal action. The parties involved must respond by January 13 in accordance with the lawyers’ request.
The committee released a wealth of official documents, testimony, transcripts, and other information after their last public meeting last month, according to a report from The Daily Wire on Friday. This information was gathered as part of the committee’s investigation into the protest at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. One of those files had a spreadsheet with around 2,000 Social Security numbers of people visiting the White House in Dec. 2020.
According to The Washington Post, the list included the Social Security numbers of at least three of the members of Donald Trump’s cabinet, a few GOP governors, and a large number of officials and sympathizers. These numbers have been subsequently removed from the files. Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, Henry McMaster, the governor of South Carolina, and Ben Carson, the former secretary of housing and urban development, were among the other politicians whose private information was exposed.
