CybersecurityRussian government hackers leaked DNC e-mails: Cybersecurity experts

Published 25 July 2016

Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, said on Sunday that Friday’s release by WikiLeaks of Democratic National Committee (DNC) internal e-mails was the work of Russian government hackers. The leak, Mook said, was part of an effort by President Vladimir Putin and people in his circle to weaken Clinton and increase the chances of a Donald Trump victory in November. Cybersecurity experts support Mook’s claims.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, forced from post as DNC chair // Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, said on Sunday that Friday’s release by WikiLeaks of Democratic National Committee (DNC) internal e-mails was the work of Russian government hackers. The leak, Mook said, was part of an effort by President Vladimir Putin and people in his circle to weaken Clinton and increase the chances of a Donald Trump victory in November.

Trump has made many favorable, even admiring, comments about Putin and his leadership style, and Trump’s proposals would make U.S. foreign policy more accommodating to Russian interests in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East.

The leaked DNC e-mails
In some of the e-mails, DNC staffers appear to suggest that because Bernie Sanders is Jewish and an atheist, his nomination as leader of the Democratic Party would weaken the party’s appeal in states like Kentucky and West Virginia. Sanders and his supporters have argued that the DNC, under the leadership of Representative Debbi Wasserman-Schultz (Florida), had favored Clinton rather than play the role of an impartial referee during the primary season.

The leaking of the e-mails would suggest to Sanders’s supporters that they were right all along, and some of them may decide not to vote for Clinton.

On Saturday, Wasserman-Schultz announced that she would be stepping down from her post after the Democratic Convention, being held in Philadelphia this week.

“What’s disturbing to us is that experts are telling us Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these e-mails, and other experts are now saying that the Russians are releasing these emails for the purpose of actually of helping Donald Trump,” Mook said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I don’t think it’s coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our convention.”

Mook did not provide evidence that the Russians were trying to help Trump when pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper to back up his charges, instead falling back on what “experts” were saying.

“This isn’t my assertion — there are a number of experts that are asserting this,” Mook said. “I think we need to get to the bottom of these facts. But that’s what experts are telling us. Experts are telling us it is, in fact, the Russians who hacked these emails.”

Politico notes that last month it was revealed that Russian government hackers had broken into the DNC computer servers, which contained opposition research on Trump.