A former Romanian taxi driver whose hacking hobby revealed the existence of Hillary Clinton's private email account has been sentenced to 52 months in a US prison.

Marcel Lazar, who used the alias Guccifer online, pleaded guilty in May to unauthorised access of a protected computer and aggravated identity theft.

The 44-year-old - who was extradited in March after serving time in a Romanian prison - did not address the federal court at Thursday's hearing.

Lazar formerly bragged of hacking into former Secretary of State Mrs Clinton's emails, but prosecutors and the FBI say he was lying.

Emails Offer Insight Into Clinton

However, the Romanian did manage to obtain emails from former Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal, which were subsequently leaked.


It was a disclosure that ultimately revealed Mrs Clinton was operating an unauthorised private email system containing classified State Department information from her upstate New York home.

Despite having no formal training as a hacker, prosecutors said Lazar was able to break into the emails and social media accounts of roughly 100 Americans between 2012-14, including members of the Bush family.

Image: Lazar had no formal training as a hacker

The hacker published nude self-portraits former President George W Bush had painted of himself in the bathtub.

Lazar also made public intimate email exchanges between former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and Romanian MEP, Corina Cretu - forcing Powell to deny an affair between the two.

Other victims included the head of the US National Intelligence Council, Christopher Kojm, and the creator of hit drama show Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes.