Slashdot Mirror
Former Senate Staffer Admits To Doxxing Five Senators On Wikipedia (theverge.com)
Jackson Cosko, a former employee of Senator Maggie Hassan, has "admitted to breaking into Hassan's office after being fired, stealing data that included personal contact information, then posting that information online during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing," reports The Verge. The report says Cosko added several senators' private phone numbers and addresses to Wikipedia. He has pleaded guilty to computer fraud, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and making restricted personal information public. From the report: Cosko worked as a computer system administrator for Hassan, but he was fired in May of 2018. According to a plea agreement, he retaliated by using another employee's key to break into his old workplace at least four times, installing keyloggers on computers and using stolen login credentials to download gigabytes of data. While watching the Supreme Court confirmation hearing in September, Cosko "became angry" at Republican senators questioning Kavanaugh -- so he posted contact information for Senators Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, and Orrin Hatch on Wikipedia. Cosko was interning for US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee at the time, and his changes were flagged by a bot that detects Wikipedia edits from congressional computers. The bot inadvertently helped spread the senators' information across Twitter, a process that prosecutors say Cosko aided by tweeting about his leaks.
Cosko struck again a few days later, posting information about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul -- who had called for an investigation -- on Wikipedia. He added comments calling himself a "golden god" who had a legal right to post the information, asking readers to "send us bitcoins." When a witness spotted him in Hassan's office the next day, Cosko responded with a threatening email titled "I own EVERYTHING." Cosko claimed he would release private emails, encrypted messages, and the health data and social security numbers for senators' children. "If you tell anyone I will leak it all," he wrote. Cosko was arrested soon after. Attorneys say Cosko could serve up to 57 months in prison, and he's required to give up all the equipment used in the crimes.
Cosko struck again a few days later, posting information about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul -- who had called for an investigation -- on Wikipedia. He added comments calling himself a "golden god" who had a legal right to post the information, asking readers to "send us bitcoins." When a witness spotted him in Hassan's office the next day, Cosko responded with a threatening email titled "I own EVERYTHING." Cosko claimed he would release private emails, encrypted messages, and the health data and social security numbers for senators' children. "If you tell anyone I will leak it all," he wrote. Cosko was arrested soon after. Attorneys say Cosko could serve up to 57 months in prison, and he's required to give up all the equipment used in the crimes.
Yikes
I wonder how many others are ready to go rogue?
He's part of the revolutionary socialist democrat movement. It will be reduced, and definitely pardoned by a Democrat POTUS to "send a message" that authoritarianism won't be stopped, and don't you forget it!
He is untethered, and his rage knows no bounds!
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
The political sections of Wikipedia are already a joke, even compared to a few years ago. The current popular game is to fish Google for negative references or bylines to a (usually conservative) person or organization the editor doesn't like and then use it to frontload the beginning of their article with negative information. Then the change is etched in stone because it came from the 'reliable' NYT its automatically the consensus no matter how obscure or widespread it is.
Where's the Democrat party jackass icon on this story's banner? [no, I'm not using an expletive, the Democrat party mascot is officially a jackass]
This jerk was a Democrat staffer for Democrat "super delegate" turned United States Senator Hassan.
For all you Bernie supporters: this jerk was a loyal supporter of one of the Hillary people who did their best to steal the 2016 primary for Hillary - the ethics is not strong with this one [and this one's boss, of course].
Hmm ... no mention of the political party he and his senator are members of. They must be democrats then. If they were Republicans the media and summaries would surely be pointing that out.
this is aggravated doxxing it is double-dodeca-illegal for anyone to know I've been fudging my age
your kind has no business knowing where I live, only the NSA gets to know that about people
and by people I mean commoners
because think of the child terrorists
By publishing their personal/direct cell/email/etc... info which isn't publicly available?
It sounds like Congressional Democrats are really bad at hiring staff.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
By your standards, Reagan was shot by a Democrat so itâ(TM)s for Republicans to shoot Dem Presidents.
You are an idiot.
An article about a Democrat fucking Republicans. They didnt really mention D vs R in the summary though, I guess youre just supposed to know that Mitch McConnell is an R.
History lessons for those not around to remember:
After the mass pardons by G H Bush of all the Reagan Iran-Contra criminals in '92, Republicans have no grounds to criticize any pardons done by Democrats.
And it was Republican Gerald Ford who pardoned his Republican predecessor in '74 even before charges were brought, "a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9,1974."
The Republicans have been far more shameless in using the pardon to clear their cronies of crimes committed while in actual government positions.
By the way, the Attorney General at the time who advised Bush on the Iran-Contra pardons was our current AG, William Barr, handpicked by Trump to take over the Justice Department now...
Okay then, let's play that game.
Democrats have no grounds to complain when Republicans filibuster a supreme court pick in the final year of a Democrat president (Obama's nomination of Garland) because Democrats started that tradition.
Democrats have no grounds to complain when Republicans refuse to impeach a sitting president, because during Obama's campaign he convinced his party not to impeach George Bush for cause - including "taking the country to war under false pretenses" and various war crimes - because "it would divide the nation". (This despite Democrats holding firm majorities in both houses at the time.)
Not just the doxxing, he broke into the office of the guy he doxxed like four time to hack the computer and steal stuff. That part is even more clearly criminal.
. . . so the dox got released after his arrest.
It sounds like Congressional Democrats are really bad at hiring staff.
Congressional Democrats are really bad, period.
I don't think this site has enough space to list the links to Trump's hiring mess.
In which case you will barge out the group judgement for the actions of someone WHO ISN'T EVEN IN THAT GROUP.
Ideological driven cherry-pickers like that poster are like soccer hooligans, any reflex emotional reaction is totally within bounds when your team takes a legitimate hit. What makes this disturbing is that, unlike soccer hooligans, alcohol (presumably) isn't a precipitating factor. Likely just suffering from severe TDS.
Likely, "Costco" will undoubtably be "Smollettized" and be given a free pass and he'll return to his echo chamber.
Which elected Democrat official shot Reagan?!
Ezekiel 23:20
LOL, reading comprehension fail.
Nice how you pick those three specifically. Ask the of them were prosecuted for embarrassing Obama.
Oh how I do love the smell of coerced false confession in the morning!
If a Republican aide had done this the work 'Republican' would be in every other sentence and it would also blame Trump.
Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn't know because they might reflect badly on Democrats.
- Jim Treacher
I have never voted republiCON, but I despise false and unproven allegations! Three women accused that SCOTUS nominee (whom I did not want on the bench, BTW) and two were discredited, at least one of them facing criminal charges, last I heard on the other they were unsure to charge her.
// her mention of "beach friends" one of whom as a lifelong friend, retired FBI agent who, according to a past boyfriend's letter, she had coached to beat lie detector tests when she first applied for the FBI some 20 years prior).
The PuppetMedia kept claiming that Christine Blasey Ford was a "credible witness" yet there were quite important variances in her testimony (what she claimed - - what her psychologist or psychotherapist said
Why hasn't this Christine Blasey Ford been devoting her life to the pursuit of Kavanaugh if she is so credible????
Republicans are a fucking disease.
calling himself a "golden god"
ROFL
had a legal right to post the information
send us bitcoins
If it's his legal right, why do payments need to be paid in bitcoin?
threatening email titled "I own EVERYTHING."
would release private emails, encrypted messages, and the health data and social security numbers for senators' children. "If you tell anyone I will leak it all,"
His legal right to sell children's social security numbers? This guy is pretty hilarious!
This is just poor logic, no those are not the parent's standards. You are bad at following conversations. The AC at the top posted some anti-democratic nonsense, and the parent responded with some anti-republican stuff. The parent used the phrase "Republicans have no grounds to criticize any pardons done by Democrats" which is as close as it gets to what you're claiming, but this is a commonly used phrase when someone is trying to point out hypocrisy. It is not an excuse for Democrats to misbehave.
Also, where on earth did you get the idea that John Hinkley Jr. was a Democrat? He was a nut, his motives were apolitical, and nothing says that he was a registered voter in any party.
Whooosh.
Try reading what he said, next time.
Shifting the goal posts and attacking what he didn't say, only makes you look stupid.
In Washington DC there happens to be all kinds of police. Probably more than any other place in the country. There's Metro PD (DC Police), FBI, Secret Service, Customs, Treasury, Federal Protection, Park Police, bla bla bla.. finally - Capital Police! So they just let people in and do whatever? Seems odd. Here's a fired guy, don't need to watch him? Usually when you're fired from some place, you're persona non grata.
Maybe the Capital Police are only good enough for show?
I thought the goal posts were "crimes committed while in actual government positions".
Ezekiel 23:20