by TChris

A report released yesterday sheds additional light on the theft by Republican staff members of documents prepared for the use of Democratic Senators.

The two former Republican aides were identified as Manuel Miranda, who already had been named as a central figure in the investigation, and Jason Lundell, whose name had not been known previously. Investigators said an inexperienced computer coordinator did not make files adequately inaccessible, and that Lundell observed the coordinator opening files with a few key strokes and then copied what he had done. For the next 18 months, the report said, Lundell supplied documents to Miranda after getting access to the files of staff aides for Democratic Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Feinstein and Kennedy. The largest share was from Durbin's office.

Reporters were told that names would be redacted from the report, but the copies distributed yesterday mistakenly included the names.

Miranda denies that the reports were confidential "because they were easily accessed." Sorta like arguing that it isn't wrong to steal pencils from the blind because it's so easy to do.