Jeh Johnson used an unsecured email account to send sensitive Homeland Security emails

   I was not going to write anything about this because Barack Obama is gone and this will go nowhere anyway however there was nothing else I found interesting enough to write about so here goes.

 Judicial Watch–which continues to do the job the Congress failed to do–has uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request that Jeh Johnson, while head of the Department of Homeland Security, also used an unsecured email account to transmit sensitive information. And he was not alone, there were three others in the department that followed suit.

  Here is more: 

We have obtained 215 pages of documents containing official, sensitive emails of Jeh Johnson, former head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and three other top department officials sent through private, unsecured, webmail-based email accounts.

The documents include emails discussing high-level meetings Johnson was to have with the Kuwaiti ambassador and Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry officials, as well as a West African $4.5 million online consumer fraud scam.

We received these documents thanks a May 23, 2016, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit after Homeland Security failed to respond to a December 29, 2015, FOIA request seeking emails “relating to official United States Government business sent to or from” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and three other top Homeland Security officials that used “non-‘.gov’” email addresses (Judicial Watch, Inc., v. United States Department of Homeland Security (No. l:l6-cv-00967)).

  Here is some of what was transmitted:

The Kuwaiti ambassador to the US sent an email to Johnson’s unsecure email account attempting to set up a meeting for him with Kuwait’s Interior Ministry and discussing Kuwait’s Interior Minister’s having meetings with the heads of CIA, FBI and DNI

The US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia emailed to Johnson’s unsecure email account, discussing Johnson’s upcoming meetings at the Saudi Interior Ministry in Jeddah.

DHS Chief of Staff Marrone held sensitive discussions with an unidentified individual regarding the earnings of Lockheed Martin and a space vehicle launch consortium between Lockheed and Boeing, which the sender said to “use wisely.” Marrone also received procurement documents related to launch vehicles and their “Launch Infrastructure Capability.”

Johnson gave a “Progress Report” speech in which he cited the Homeland Security Department’s “strides in cybersecurity.”

  That last one is rich wit irony is it not? He gave a progress report on DHS’s cybersecurity efforts from an unsecure email account. You just cannot make this stuff up…

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium