San Diego County lawmaker U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa said Tuesday he had fired his deputy communications director after learning that he shared e-mail correspondence from other reporters with a New York Times journalist.
The California Republican, who chairs the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is the House GOP's chief investigator, said he fired Kurt Bardella because his sharing of reporter e-mails with Times journalist Mark Leibovich was "a basic breach of trust with the reporters it was his job to assist."
Issa said in a statement that Bardella had received permission from his supervisors to participate in a book project with Leibovich, but that no one in his office was aware, until the committee was contacted by the publication Politico on Friday, that that entailed sharing e-mails.
He said an initial review found no evidence that Bardella had provided Leibovich with internal committee or congressional documents or conversations, or that Leibovich had inappropriately heard or recorded any phone conversations.
"The inappropriate information shared with Mark Leibovich appears to have been limited to Kurt's own correspondence with reporters," Issa said.
He said that Bardella had explained to him that he saw his participation in Leibovich's book "as an opportunity to contribute a narrative about what a press secretary does on Capitol Hill and was not about offering salacious details designed to settle scores or embarrass anyone." Issa said his review of the materials supported that characterization.
According to a Washington Post profile, Bardella, 27, worked as press secretary for Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, before joining Issa's staff in January, 2009.
Local
In July 2009, Politico named Bardella one of Capitol Hill's "50 Politico's To Watch." "My goal is very simple," he told The New Yorker in January 2011. "I'm going to make Darrell Issa an actual political figure."
