Report: Brian Mast consultant used hacked data

Isadora Rangel | Treasure Coast Newspapers

A report claims information hacked from Democrats during the presidential race also played a role in U.S. Rep. Brian Mast's Treasure Coast race, an allegation his office denies.

Mast's former political consultant told the Wall Street Journal he adjusted the Republican candidate's campaign strategy based on Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee data leaked by hacker “Guccifer 2.0" in August, according to a Thursday story.

“I did adjust some voting targets based on some data I saw from the leaks,” consultant Anthony Bustamante is quoted saying in the article.

Bustamante declined to comment for this story.

Mast's office said Bustamante terminated his contract with the campaign June 30, before the documents were made public by the hacker. Bustamante told the Wall Street Journal he continued to advise the campaign informally after June.

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On Aug. 12, political operative Aaron Nevins contacted Guccifer, whom U.S. officials believe is linked to Russia, via Twitter asking for data, the Journal reported. Nevins posted some of the 2.5 gigabytes of documents on his blog HelloFla.com.

"Bustamante said the Democratic voter analyses led him to amp up some of his TV ad buys and reduce some mailed material ahead of the November election," the Journal reported.

There's no evidence of collusion between Mast's campaign and the hacker or that the leaked information helped Mast, R-Palm City, beat Democrat Randy Perkins in the Treasure Coast-Palm Beach District 18.

Mast's spokesman Brad Stewart denied Bustamante was involved in making decisions on TV ad buys.

Stewart also said Bustamante was not involved in the campaign during the general election, which began after the Aug. 30 primary.

Timing

Stewart provided a July email chain exchange between Bustamante and the campaign in which Bustamante writes his consulting firm "effectively ended its relationship" with the campaign June 30.

But federal election filings show Bustamante's Miami-based firm Groundswell Strategies received $870 on Sept. 1 to do robocalls for Mast.

Stewart said Bustamante wasn't a consultant when his firm created two robocalls for the campaign in August.

"But he was not doing consulting work, like making ad buys as referred in the Wall Street Journal article," Stewart said.