TSA nominee gave conflicting accounts of privacy incident

The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by the Washington Post show.

The disclosure comes as pressure builds from Democrats on Capitol Hill for a quick January confirmation of Erroll Southers, whose nomination has been held up by GOP opponents. In the aftermath of an attempted airline bombing on Christmas Day, calls have intensified for lawmakers to install permanent leadership at the TSA, a crucial agency in enforcing airline security.

Southers, a former FBI agent, is now the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence. He has described inconsistencies in his accounts to Congress as “inadvertent” and the result of poor memory of an incident that dates back 20 years.

In a Nov. 20 letter obtained by the Post, he told key senators that he had accepted full responsibility long ago for having made a “grave error in judgment” in accessing confidential criminal records about his estranged wife’s new boyfriend.

His letter to Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and ranking Republican Susan Collins of Maine, which has not been publicly disclosed, attempts to correct statements about the episode that he made in a sworn affidavit on Oct. 22.

Southers did not respond to a request for an interview.

He first described the episode in his October affidavit, telling the Senate panel that two decades ago he asked a San Diego Police Department employee to access confidential criminal records about the boyfriend. Southers said he had been censured by superiors at the FBI. He described the incident as isolated and expressed regrets about it.

The committee approved his nomination on Nov. 19. One day later, Southers wrote to Lieberman and Collins saying his first account was incorrect. After reviewing documents, he recalled that he had twice conducted the database searches himself, downloaded confidential law enforcement records about his wife’s boyfriend and passed information on to the police department employee, the letter said.

It is a violation of the federal Privacy Act to access such confidential information without proper cause. The law says that “any person who knowingly and willfully requests or obtains any record concerning an individual from an agency under false pretenses shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not more than $5,000.”

In his letter, Southers said he simply forgot the circumstances of the searches, which occurred in 1987 and 1988 when he was worried about his wife and their son. The letter said, “During a period of great personal turmoil, I made a serious error in judgment by using my official position with the FBI to resolve a personal problem.”

Southers’ nomination has already been delayed by partisan bickering. Though two Senate committees have endorsed him, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) held up his approval because of concern that Southers would support the unionization of TSA workers.

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro defended Southers and said the changes in his account should not affect his nomination. Lieberman and Collins also voiced support.