Story highlights Adam Schiff and Steve Israel: Hacking and leaking of private emails is happening at an unheard of scale

Reporters should ensure they inform their readers about the likely provenance of hacked emails, they say

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) is the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Rep. Steve Israel (D-New York) is the chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. The opinions expressed in this commentary are theirs.

(CNN) This campaign season has introduced a dangerous new precedent -- foreign interference in an American presidential campaign and the weaponization of hacked emails.

For months, we have seen frequent publication of emails and other information, stolen largely from Democratic Party leaders and organizations. Most recently, the personal emails of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff and current chairman on Secretary Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, have been posted on the website WikiLeaks, and eagerly pored over by political rivals and reporters alike.

Adam Schiff

Steve Israel

Previously, the contents of email accounts ranging from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and even low-level staffers and volunteers, have been posted on various sites.

The hacking and leaking of private emails is happening at an unheard of scale, but it's not without precedent in U.S. political history to use illegally acquired documents against political enemies. The most obvious case is the break-in at the Watergate complex, in which the Nixon administration directed the theft of sensitive files and the tapping of phones in the headquarters of the DNC.

And while the remote break-in of a computer may seem somehow different than smashing a window and rifling through file cabinets, the goal of the intrusion is the same and is no less illegal.

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