The Washington Times: The FBI on Monday said it’s investigating the hacking of private Democratic National Committee emails, saying agents are working to “determine the nature and scope of the matter.”
Late last week, WikiLeaks posted nearly 20,000 internal DNC emails that showed party leaders actively favored Hillary Clinton and worked against Sen. Bernard Sanders during the party primary. The emails, which included DNC leaders plotting how to use Mr. Sanders’ supposed atheism against him in conservative states such as West Virginia and Kentucky, forced DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to step down Sunday.
Her shocking resignation came just as the party convention began here, though her looming departure hasn’t quelled anger among Sanders supporters.
As for the leak, the FBI said it will “continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace.”
“A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously,” read the statement, which was issued via email.
The Clinton campaign has claimed the hack was perpetrated by Russian hackers sympathetic to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and designed to paint Democrats in a negative light.
“What the experts are saying, what the experts said when this breach happened at the DNC was that they believed that it was Russian state actors who took these emails,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters Monday. “What further experts are saying is that then, because they possessed those emails, that Russian state actors were feeding the emails to hackers for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.”
Private cybersecurity firms that have examined the hack reportedly found signs that at least two hacking groups, both with ties to the Russian government, were involved.
Democratic lawmakers also are pushing the narrative that Russian actors may be working with the Trump campaign.
“If the hack is linked to Russian actors, it would not be the first time cyber intrusions linked to the Kremlin and its supporters have sought to influence the political process in other countries,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democrat and his party’s ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “Given Donald Trump’s well known admiration for Putin and his belittling of NATO, the Russians have both the means and the motive to engage in a hack of the DNC and the dump of its emails prior to the Democratic convention. That foreign actors may be trying to influence our election — let alone a powerful adversary like Russia — should concern all Americans of any party.”
