Former U.S. Attorney’s Office Contractor Paralegal Sentenced for Misuse of a Government Computer

On March 9, 2021, a former contractor paralegal assigned to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa was sentenced to six months of imprisonment for one count of fraud and related activity in connection with computers.  Danielle Taff was sentenced in the Southern District of Iowa.  According to the factual statement in support of the guilty plea, on or about May 16, 2018, Taff utilized her government computer to access non-public information without authorization and took photographs of the information with her cell phone.  Also according to the factual statement in support of the guilty plea, Taff allowed another individual to photograph the images on her cell phone later in the day on May 16, 2018; that individual later disseminated some or all of the photographs to several other individuals; and several of the photographs were posted on a social media platform on or about October 7, 2018, and on or about October 25, 2018.  The investigation is being conducted by the OIG’s Chicago Field Office and the Cyber Investigations Office.