FBI Investigating Alleged Hack of MSNBC Host Joy Reid's Blog

Reid claims not to have written a series of homophobic blog posts that are alleged to have run on her personal blog more than 10 years ago.

MSNBC host Joy Reid claims that foul play was responsible for a series of decades-old homophobic blog posts that were unearthed on Monday and look to have been written by her, well before her cable news career began. Now, the FBI is formally investigating the accusations, her lawyer said on Wednesday night.

"We have received confirmation the FBI has opened an investigation into potential criminal activities surrounding several online accounts, including personal email and blog accounts, belonging to Joy-Ann Reid," Reid's lawyer, John H. Reichman, said in a statement that was provided to The Hollywood Reporter by MSNBC. "Our own investigation and monitoring of the situation will continue in parallel, and we are cooperating with law enforcement as their investigation proceeds.”

The blog posts, which appeared on the now-defunct site The Reid Report, included homophobic slights against several public figures.

Reid has been aided by an independent security consultant, Jonathan Nichols, who said in a letter this week that her one-time blog, The Reid Report, was "breached."

Reid herself put out a statement denying that she was responsible for the posts. "In December I learned that an unknown, external party accessed and manipulated material from my now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, to include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to my personal beliefs and ideology," she said in part.

MSNBC, her employer, has not commented publicly on the matter, but a source close to the situation said the network is "respectfully letting that process play itself out."

Back in December, Reid apologized for a similarly dated blog post in which she suggested dismissively that a Florida politician was homosexual.