Some Leaked Podesta Emails Were Altered by Russia: Report
A bombshell new investigation by the Associated Press reveals that Russian hackers altered at least some of the documents they leaked from prominent Democrats last year — although the extent of the alterations is still an open question.
Specifically, one source tells the AP that notorious Russian hacker Guccifer 2.0 airbrushed the word “CONFIDENTIAL” on top of a document that did not have that label in order to make it more immediately appealing to reporters. It is not known at this time whether Guccifer also altered the content of the Podesta emails to make them appear more scandalous than they really were.
Additionally, the AP’s source claims that “the first document Guccifer 2.0 published on June 15 came not from the DNC as advertised but from Podesta’s inbox.”
In addition to revelations about the alteration of documents, the AP’s report also reveals that Guccifer 2.0 specifically told some of its reporters that his goal was to sink Clinton’s campaign and to make Trump the president.
“Together with Assange we’ll make america great again,” he wrote to one reporter.
Additionally, Russian hackers seemed particularly interested in hacking into Democrats’ voter registration data, although it’s not clear from the report if they were ultimately successful.
“Pratt Wiley, the DNC’s then-director of voter protection, had been targeted as far back as October 2015 and the hackers tried to pry open his inbox as many as 15 times over six months,” the AP writes.
