Share

Hacker releases cell phone numbers, personal emails of House Democrats

The ramifications of the DNC hack are still being felt in the political party, especially after the release of 20,000 internal emails by whistleblowing outfit WikiLeaks last month which appeared to suggest DNC officials clearly favoured Hillary Clinton over rival candidate Sanders. After that intrusion, U.S. authorities began investigating its connection to an earlier cyber attack on the DCCC.

Advertisement

The DCCC also confirmed in a statement that they already knew that the document had been posted and that they were already investigating its originality. Citing sources familiar with the investigation, the Times reported that hackers compromised the private email accounts of over 100 party officials and groups, including officials in the campaign of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Governors Association – though a Democratic source said that the DGA inclusion was incorrect.

Pelosi said she was among those whose phone number was leaked.

The cellphone numbers of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland were among the information posted. “Upon landing, I have received scores of mostly obscene and sick calls, voicemails and text messages”. It also contains personal contact information for the members’ chiefs of staffs, schedulers, press contacts, and more-including personal email addresses and cell phone numbers for them.

Schiff said he and Sen. “I have every confidence that law enforcement will get to the bottom of this, and identify the responsible parties”.

Some of the documents published by DC Leaks include emails from Republican lawmakers who were also apparently hacked, though none were of a particularly newsworthy nature.

“It is the Russians”, Pelosi told reporters at a news conference, referring to the recent breach affecting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Investigators concluded that the hacker, who claims to be Romanian, is part of a Romanian intelligence operation.

Many U.S. security officials and cyber security experts have concluded that state-sponsored Russian hackers stole the DNC emails, NBC News reported last month. Who did they give the information to? And I would say it’s beyond a reasonable doubt …

Advertisement

Shyla Nelson, a cofounder of the civil rights group Election Justice USA, said: “The narrative that somehow “foreign operatives” would be doing so (hacking) in order to interfere with our national elections is not only unsubstantiated, it’s reckless and incendiary”.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in this CNN file