“Curious” Navy sailor tried to access Biden’s medical records as colleagues “freaked out,” investigation shows

Driven by “curiosity,” a U.S. Navy corpsman attempted to access President Biden’s medical records last year following a group discussion with his colleagues about military security protocols for using government computers, according to the federal criminal investigation obtained by CBS News. 

In July, CBS News reported a junior U.S. Navy sailor attempted to gain access to Mr. Biden’s medical records but was unable to do so and was subsequently administratively reprimanded for the unauthorized query. 

CBS News filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the civilian law enforcement agency responsible for criminal investigations within the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. On Friday, NCIS released its closed investigation to CBS News. 

The investigation details how a low-ranking U.S. Navy corpsman attempted to access the president’s medical records and the penalty he received for doing so — a nonjudicial punishment for dereliction of duty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the laws and regulations governing the U.S. military. 

The corpsman, whose name the Navy will not disclose, was demoted in rank to E-2 from E-3, given 20 days of extra duty and only received half pay for the next six months. Base pay for an E-2 with two to three years of service is roughly $2,260 per month. 

On the afternoon of Feb. 22, according to the NCIS documents, the Navy corpsman sat at his desk, surrounded by the steady hum of computers and the murmurs of his coworkers at the Naval Medical Readiness and Training Center at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. A civilian described as a licensed nurse and a U.S. Army soldier worked nearby. 

The scene was standard bureaucratic fare until a nearby colleague left her workstation, leaving her Common Access Card, or CAC, behind — which was still logged into her account. This small, unassuming piece of plastic, roughly the size of a credit card, is described by the Defense Department as a “smart” key, granting access to everything from locked doors to military computer networks. 

The group of medical professionals struck up a conversation and started talking about the security risk of leaving a CAC unattended in a computer. 

One of the unnamed individuals pointed out the glaring vulnerability: “Someone could maliciously use your CAC when you walk away,” they said, according to the narrative of the group discussion within the NCIS investigation. 

Another voice in the group floated the idea that someone could use an unattended CAC account to snoop on the president’s medical records. The notion hung in the air. The Navy corpsman responded with apparent disbelief — could he actually pull up the medical records for the president of the United States? He decided to test it, according to the NCIS investigation. 

The Navy corpsman told NCIS investigators he was driven by curiosity, so he pulled up the patient search database in the Genesis Medical Health System — the database for the military medical system — and typed in the name “Joseph Biden.” 

A single record with the name “Joseph Biden” appeared, with a birthdate attached. The NCIS investigation stated that when the file popped up, the Navy corpsman and his coworkers were “freaked out,” with one of his colleagues walking away from the computer. 

The Navy corpsman then turned to Google to look up Mr. Biden’s birthdate, and saw that it matched the birthdate on the medical file. He clicked into the record to see what information was inside. 

The corpsman would later tell NCIS investigators that “there was not a lot of information in the record, except two instances,” and “[he] did not remember the specifics of the instances, but remembered a doctor’s name was listed.” The corpsman turned to Google again and searched for the name of Mr. Biden’s doctor, which did not match the name listed on the Genesis record, according to the investigation. 

The corpsman told NCIS agents that he realized at this point he should stop looking at the record and closed out the file. A forensic analysis showed that the “Joseph Biden” file was accessed for about 20 seconds, between 1:22 p.m. and 1:23 p.m. 

A female colleague, who was aware the corpsman searched the system for the president, advised him to report himself to his supervisor. The corpsman stated he knew he was going to be reported for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, the federal law designed to protect patients’ health information. 

He didn’t immediately report himself, but told investigators he felt guilty so he reported himself the next morning. By then, however, another colleague had already reported the violation up the chain of command. The corpsman waived his rights and confessed to accessing the record out of curiosity. 

The corpsman said he did not “print, save, email, download, photograph, or otherwise document the record.” Another colleague told investigators they had never heard the corpsman express “anything about his political beliefs or background,” and that he was “nonchalant” until the file popped up, describing him as “freaked out.” 

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service launched its investigation on Feb. 26. On Feb. 27, the deputy director of the White House medical unit — identified as a U.S. Army officer in the NCIS report — told investigators that the record accessed by the corpsman was not a legitimate electronic health record of the president. 

The president was informed about the sailor’s attempts to access his medical records within hours of White House staff being notified about the attempted breach by the Defense Department, a White House official told CBS News in July. 

The president underwent his annual physical at Walter Reed on Feb. 28, two days after the Navy’s criminal investigation began. The president was deemed “fit for duty” by his doctor after the physical that lasted about two and a half hours.

NCIS agents also looked through the corpsman’s social media accounts. Agents found that his profile picture on Instagram, when run though a reverse image search, “revealed imagery potentially associated with the online ‘hactivist’ group Anonymous.” It’s not clear from the investigation if any actual link was confirmed by NCIS agents between the corpsman and Anonymous. 

The corpsman’s MSI laptop and Apple iPhone were seized by NCIS investigators, with the corpsman cooperating fully. The laptop’s internet browser history showed that the sailor conducted searches for “Biden, Doctor, Flights, Anonymous, President, POTUS.” A text message shows the corpsman telling an unnamed person that he “looked up Joe Biden.” The laptop and phone were later returned. 

None of the others present during the incident are reported to have been disciplined. 

Read the NCIS investigative report here: