Utah Expands Its Listgate Investigation

Eight more Utah state employees are under investigation for their possible involvement in leaking a 29-page document containing the personal information of 1,300 Utah residents, some of whom are undocumented.

By Julianne Hing Jul 20, 2010

Eight more Utah state employees are under investigation for their possible involvement in leaking a 29-page document containing the personal information of 1,300 Utah residents, some of whom are undocumented, reports James Nelson for Reuters.

The state expanded its investigation to these other employees on Monday, days after the state put two employees on administrative leave for compiling and leaking the list to law enforcement and media outlets in Utah. Utah Department of Workforce Services spokesperson Dave Lewis said the eight new employees, whose names have not been released to the public, were "persons of interest" who don’t hold management positions in the agency.

"There were some red flags that were raised," Lewis told Reuters when asked about Monday’s news. The list was leaked last week by a group that calls itself the Concerned Citizens of the United States and demanded that the 1,300 people whose Social Security numbers, home addresses, workplaces and private health information were listed be deported.

This morning Utah Gov. Gary Herbert convened a meeting with 30 community leaders to discuss the scandal. Although he has publicly criticized the leak as the "misguided" and "deplorable" actions of a small, rogue group," he decided to open the meeting with a discussion of the federal government’s failures to adequately deal with border security issues. "Consequently, the number of immigrants who are in the United States illegally is creating societal challenges and costs that simply can no longer go unaddressed," Herbert said.

Steve Sandstrom,a Utah state representative who’s been pushing a SB 1070 copycat bill, is scheduled to speak at the summit. There are a total of 25 people on a speaker’s list today from the political, law enforcement, business and social services arenas. Nate Carlisle from the Salt Lake Tribune is in the meeting right now, updating here.