FIRST ON FOX – Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., is demanding that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) immediately fire the at least a dozen employees who reportedly improperly accessed the medical records of vice presidential candidates Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this summer.
Mast, chairman of Veterans For Trump, penned a letter urging VA Secretary Denis McDonough for a “swift response and action to prevent such egregious violations of privacy within the VA from occurring again.” The Florida Republican is also calling for the FBI to get involved to investigate the possibility of foreign election interference.
“I urge you to buck the employee union of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and immediately fire the employees who were caught snooping into the private medical records of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – who are both running to be vice president. VA employees know this is not permitted,” Mast wrote in a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital. “As a combat-injured veteran, I rely on the VA for my medical care. This isn’t just a legal misstep; it’s a breach that undermines veterans’ confidence in the VA and raises serious questions about the professionalism of VA personnel.”
The Washington Post first reported Monday that at least 12 VA employees within the agency’s health administration were under criminal investigation after VA investigators discovered they improperly accessed the medical records of Vance and Walz. VA Inspector General Michael Missal’s office reportedly informed both candidates’ campaigns and shared evidence with federal prosecutors related to several of the health system employees, including a physician and a contractor who “spent extended time” viewing the files of former President Trump and Vice President Harris’ running mates.
Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., speaks at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 9, 2024, regarding competing reports on the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“Dismissing these employees and referring them to the Justice Department for prosecution, provided there is evidence that laws were broken, is the first step the VA must take to restore credibility,” Mast wrote. “Furthermore, I urge you to fully brief Congress on how this violation of privacy transpired and implement new guidelines to prevent such acts from occurring in the future.”
Mast, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, implored McDonough to coordinate with the FBI.
The letter comes a week after Trump’s campaign said he was briefed on “real and specific threats” from Iran to assassinate the Republican presidential nominee.
“Given the recent foreign meddling in our elections – like Iran’s assassination plots against President Trump – I also request your department coordinate with the FBI to ensure Senator Vance and Governor Walz’s medical information was neither shared with foreign operatives nor accessed on their behalf,” Mast, who served in the U.S. Army for 12 years and lost both legs to catastrophic injuries endured while working as a bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan, wrote. “Safeguarding sensitive information about our public officials is critical to national security and the integrity of our democracy.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI, but they declined to comment.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2019. (ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images)
Last month, experts from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a summary of the current threat environment citing how the “big three foreign influence actors, Russia, Iran, and China are all trying by some measure to exacerbate divisions in U.S. society for their own benefit, and see election periods as moments of vulnerability.”
“Like Russia, Iran has a multi-pronged approach that looks to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process. Tehran has also sought cyber access to individuals with direct ties to the presidential campaigns of both political parties, while elements have also denigrated the former president,” they said. “Iran has a suite of tools at its disposal, as demonstrated in recent reports outlining Iran’s cyber operations, including the hack-and-leak operation against the former president’s campaign. Iran is also conducting covert social media operations using fake personas, and is using AI to help publish inauthentic news articles.”
Regarding the Post’s reporting on Monday, VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement that the agency “reported to law enforcement allegations that VA personnel may have improperly accessed Veteran records” and takes “the privacy of the Veterans we serve very seriously and have strict policies in place to protect their records.”
“Any attempt to improperly access Veteran records by VA personnel is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Hayes wrote.
The VA declined to provide further comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
The potential motive for accessing the medical records is under investigation, and investigators are still trying to determine if Vance and Walz’s information was shared as a result of the breaches, the Post reported.
JD Vance and Tim Walz will debate each other Tuesday night in New York City. (Getty Images )
The VA employees under investigation, including the physician and contractor, accessed the medical records using their VA computers and did so mostly from their government offices, sources told the newspaper. Some of the staffers in question reportedly told investigators they were simply curious to see the files of Vance and Walz given both candidates have defended their military records on the campaign trail.
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The breach reportedly did not include access to any disability compensation, which has more security protocols than health information.
