Washington • Someone using the House internet network posted personal details about Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee among other senators on the website Wikipedia.org, listing their home addresses and phone numbers.
The posts were taken down quickly but tweets about their information continued to boomerang on the internet.
Hatch, who is the Senate president pro tempore and third in line for the presidency, alerted Capitol Police, which provides a 24-hour security detail for him.
An automatic Twitter bot called Congress Edits, which tracks changes to Wikipedia from internet addresses on Capitol Hill, first posted about the changes to the website, including screen grabs of the personal details. Posting such information is called “doxing” and can be a crime.
The postings on Wikipedia happened as both Hatch and Lee were participating in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and allegations of sexual misconduct by Christine Blasey Ford.
A spokeswoman for the Capitol Police said the agency does not comment on ongoing investigations.