The email woes for the Democratic Party are not over yet. Reuters has reported that the FBI is looking into another breach at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which could be related to the hack into the Democratic National Committee earlier this year.
The release of the DNC emails prior to the start of the Democratic National Convention caused quite a bit of heartburn between the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton camps, with the former accusing the national party leadership of trying to tip the scale for Clinton. The emails show DNC staffers discussing ways to derail the Sanders candidacy. It led to the resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as committee chairwoman.
The news organization added that for some time, a phony site collected the information of would-be donors to the party. Instead of that information going to the company that processes donations, it would go to the phony site. Sources told Reuters that the FBI feels that this was used to obtain donor information and not steal money:
The DNC, targeted by hackers earlier this year, and the DCCC share the same office space on South Capitol Street in Washington.The DCCC had no immediate comment on Thursday. Donation processing company ActBlue also had no immediate comment. CrowdStrike, the California-based cyber security firm that investigated the DNC breach, declined to comment.
Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist who once worked for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, said the possibility of the DCCC being hacked was cause for great concern.
“Until proven otherwise, I would suggest that everyone involved with the campaign committee operate under the assumption Russians have access to everything in their computer systems,” Manley said.
The FBI referred questions to a statement it made on Monday on the DNC hack:
"The FBI is investigating a cyber intrusion involving the DNC and are working to determine the nature and scope of the matter. A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously, and the FBI will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace."
The disclosure of the DCCC breach is likely to further stoke concerns among Democratic Party operatives, many of whom have acknowledged they fear further dumps of hacked files that could harm their candidates. WikiLeaks has said it has more material related to the U.S. election that it intends to release.
While there is chatter about the Russians being responsible, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said it was just too early to name a perpetrator. Nevertheless, these hacks only add to the whole email narrative against Clinton that has proven to be disastrous concerning her favorability numbers, especially when it comes to trustworthiness and honesty. Hillary had an unsecure server that housed sensitive information. It was certainly vulnerable to foreign intrusion and could have possibly threatened national security. Now, Clinton’s own party’s files are being scooped up—and they may contain some dirty laundry. Yet, who knew that emails would be tripping up Democrats right now.
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