A Russian hacker has come forward claiming responsibility for hacking into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) database and stealing incriminating documents.

According to reports, the leaked documents show Democratic Party officials and moguls from the media in collaboration with Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidate election campaign. The collaboration allegedly dates back to May 26, 2015, the day Bernie Sanders launched his own campaign for the race for the Democratic nomination.

The Russian hacker goes by the name of Guccifer 2.0. The hacker has leaked an official DNC document which details how the DNC would work with the mainstream media to discredit presidential candidate nominees from the Republican Party. The leaked papers also revealed how the DNC planned to elaborate on the positive aspects of Hillary Clinton while modulating any negatives.

Guccifer 2.0 says he downloaded thousands of papers on the DNC server. The hacktivist also claims he downloaded documents from Clinton’s private server during her time spent as Secretary of State. One document from 2008 titled ‘Promises and Proposals – National security and Foreign Policy’, specifies foreign policy goals during the Obama administration’s first term in office.









Clinton and the Media

A report on Red Alert Politics provides details of information written in the documents and how the DCN planned to keep Clinton ‘blemish free’ in the mainstream media. The documents read:

Reporter Outreach: Working through the DCN and others we should use background briefings, prep with reporters for interviews with GOP candidates, off-the-record conversations and oppo pitches to help pitch stories with no fingerprints and utilise reporters to drive a message” (1).

The document continues:

Our goals in the coming months will be to frame the Republican field and the eventual nominee early and to provide a contrast between the GOP field and HRC. Over the long-term, these efforts will be aimed at getting us the best match-up in the general election, and weakening the eventual nominees through the course of the primary.”

The HRC reference in the document, stands for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Guccifer 2.0 used his own website to post the allegedly hacked DCN papers, including a lengthy ‘Opposition Research’ document on Donald Trump (2).

The hacktivist said that he sent the majority of the hacked DCN documents to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange has said that WikiLeaks has sufficient information to indict Clinton.

“We’ve accumulated a lot of material about Hillary Clinton. We could proceed to an indictment,” said Assange.

Despite claims that a Russian government agency had been involved in the hack, Guccifer 2.0 is adamant he worked alone (3).