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TSA Report Piles On

Trying to slam the unpopular Transportation Security Administration like a linebacker is nothing new, but a GOP report released last week took things a bit far when it initially mistook a disgraced ex-TSA worker for a disgraced ex-NFL star.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn released a scathing report June 4 that listed the arrest records for 50 former TSA employees arrested since 2005 for crimes ranging from bribery to child pornography. The Tennessee Republican said the TSA didn’t use sufficient criminal and background checks for its employees.

But finding accurate information on criminal records is apparently difficult. On page 13 of the report, Blackburn originally gave a rap sheet for Leroy Ray, a former TSA screener who was charged with theft in 2010 after he was caught on video allegedly taking nearly $500 out of the bag of a woman in a wheelchair as the item passed through an X-ray machine.

Instead of Ray’s face, though, the page showed New York Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor’s mug shot from his statutory rape arrest in 2010.

The pictures of Taylor, who pleaded guilty in 2011 and subsequently received probation, were widely circulated on the Internet.

Blackburn’s office said the report was the result of staff poring over hundreds of documents and photos and that the picture issue was simply a mix-up.

Hours after the initial posting, her website had a corrected version up.

“Unlike TSA, we catch our mistakes and immediately fix them,” an aide said.

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