DNC Hack Reveals Clinton Support, More Files Sent To Wikileaks
Though initial (and largely baseless) speculation blamed Russian hackers, it appears the actual culprit behind the computer hacking of the Democratic National Committee is a lone hacker using the name “Guccifer 2.0.”
The name references an alias used by hacker Marcel Lehel Lazar, who went by the name Gufficer, which he said was a portmanteau of Gucci and Lucifer. Lazar famously hacked numerous current and former US government officials’ email accounts, including those of the Bush family and, perhaps most notably, that of longtime Clinton family advisor Sidney Blumenthal.
The Blumenthal hack revealed that Clinton was using a private email account, which Lazar claims to have also successfully hacked. If true, that would have given Lazar access to classified emails and emails that Clinton did not disclose to Congress or the State Department.
The DNC hack is equally embarrassing and problematic for the Hillary Clinton campaign. It shows that, as far back as March, 2015, the DNC had essentially decided former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be the party’s presidential nominee. That disclosure plays into the accusation, made by many supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, that the DNC rigged the election for Clinton.
Included among Guccifer 2.0’s disclosures was information about high-level DNC donors and a large opposition research file on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, which was likely slated to be rolled out in the fall.
But the worst may be yet to come. Gufficer 2.0 said, “The main part of the papers, thousands of files and mails, I gave to Wikileaks. They will publish them soon.” Wikileaks has already promised to publish Hillary Clinton emails not disclosed by Clinton to the State Department.
Whether or not former Secretary Clinton will be prosecuted for breaking the same US laws, which others have been prosecuted for by this administration, remains to be seen.