OMAHA — Rep. Don Bacon is calling for an official investigation after his and other Air Force veterans’ personnel records were released without authorization.
The Nebraska congressman’s records were released to a third-party individual without his approval in November 2021, according to a letter from the Air Force. The news outlet to report on the existence of the letter, which it obtained a copy of.
Bacon’s office confirmed that he received the letter from Air Force Maj. Gen. Troy Dunn on Feb. 7.
It states that the Air Force’s personnel records branch received multiple requests from Abraham Payton, a backgrounds investigation specialist at Due Diligence Group LLC, for Bacon’s military personnel records on Nov. 9, 2021. Bacon served for nearly 30 years in the Air Force and retired as a brigadier general before being elected to Congress.
Payton classified the purpose of the records request as “employment and benefits†and had Bacon’s Social Security number, according to the letter.
The records department then sent Bacon’s personal identifying information to Payton on Nov. 12, 2021, the letter said.
Politico reported that Payton was a former research director for American Bridge, a Democratic political group. The news outlet also reported that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee paid Due Diligence just over $110,000 between January 2021 and December 2022.
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Bacon, a Republican who in November was elected to a fourth term representing Nebraska’s Omaha-area congressional district, told the World-Herald in a statement that he would like to see an investigation into whether the unauthorized release was connected to the Democratic political group.
“This isn’t just dirty politics, but likely a violation of the law,†the statement said. “Veterans deserve peace of mind knowing their information is safe and will be protected from political dirty tricksters.â€
In a statement, the Air Force said an audit found that there was unauthorized release of military records for 11 individuals between October 2021 and October 2022. It did not identify those individuals; however, Politico reported that Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican from Iowa, said the Air Force informed him that his records were disclosed without his authorization.
“Virtually all unauthorized disclosures were in response to a third-party seeking service records for employment or benefit purposes through a process commonly used by other federal agencies to conduct employee background checks,†the Air Force said in its statement.
In the letter to Bacon, Dunn said that there was no criminal wrongdoing or malicious intent found on the part of the employee who released the records but that procedural changes to increase security of personnel records were made after the unauthorized release.