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Former Senate Staffer Admits To Doxxing Five Senators On Wikipedia (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the dude-chill dept.

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.

36 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Oof by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yikes

  2. Under lock and key by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I wonder how many others are ready to go rogue?

  3. Slap on the wrist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    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!

    1. Re:Slap on the wrist by taustin · · Score: 2

      That does seem likely. But the way things look right now, with a 57 month sentence, he'll have been about at 20 years before the Democrats regain the White House. Maybe 200 years.

    2. Re:Slap on the wrist by thrich81 · · Score: 3, Informative

      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...

    3. Re:Slap on the wrist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Its puzzling to me how far detached from reality some of the far right are. If you take a look at democratic pardons you'll notice they aren't of political cronies, on the other hand if we look at Donald Trump he's only been in power a couple years and he's already done a number of politically motivated pardons (Arpaio, Scooter Libby, D'Souza), heck if we look at the past the most egregious cronyism pardon was Ford pardoning Nixon.

    4. Re:Slap on the wrist by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      This is pure whataboutism. It in no way addresses or refutes the topic. Try again.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    5. Re:Slap on the wrist by thrich81 · · Score: 2

      I'll give you that one, actually both -- whataboutism and not really germane to the topic of the original submission. I shouldn't have let myself be set off by a stupid AC comment in the first place, which is down to -1 now, I see.

    6. Re:Slap on the wrist by reboot246 · · Score: 2

      Just Democrats being Democrats. It's what they do.

    7. Re:Slap on the wrist by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      You're the one who's pretty "detached from reality" if you think there is any partisan divide between politicians being corrupt self-interested scumbags.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    8. Re: Slap on the wrist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Next time just lose the part about dem versus rep. Your original comment is very useful and brings to light something that others often don't remember. People throw around things like "Trump is a traitor" or "Obama is a traitor". What they seem to forget is that Reagan actually was a traitor by constitutional definition for aiding the enemy with Contra against Congress.

    9. Re:Slap on the wrist by tomhath · · Score: 1

      If you take a look at democratic pardons you'll notice they aren't of political cronies

      Nonsense. Take a look at Clinton's Pardongate controversy.

  4. The Golden God! by TrekkieGod · · Score: 1

    He is untethered, and his rage knows no bounds!

    --

    Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.

  5. Wikipedia is a mess already by Jarwulf · · Score: 2

    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.

  6. No mention of party -- must be a Democrat then by drnb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:No mention of party -- must be a Democrat then by yorgasor · · Score: 4, Informative

      It doesn't mention that Sheila Jackson Lee was a Democratic Congresswoman, only that she was a US Representative. I've never heard of her before, so I certainly wouldn't know which political party she belonged to just by seeing her name, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

      --
      Looking for a computer support specialist for your small business? Check out
    2. Re:No mention of party -- must be a Democrat then by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Cosko was interning for US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee at the time

      Nope, nothing about Democrat in there! In fact, the only mention of political party is:

      While watching the Supreme Court confirmation hearing in September, Cosko "became angry" at Republican senators questioning Kavanaugh

      Was he upset because they were too harsh, because he was an uber-conservative?

      The summary goes a LONG way to not mention Democrat (even though Cosko worked for two of them) and only mention Republican where it could be assumed they were the cause of all the issues...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    3. Re: No mention of party -- must be a Democrat then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      First, it's the Verge! Not your boogieman; "the media". Second, they are reporting on his plea which rightfully doesn't mention party affiliation, because this is beyond party lines...

      They actually don't mention any party affiliation for any members; except to point out that his specific targets listed in the plea were all Republicans (who were actually not following the party line at that moment). I guess they could have mentioned that he also committed crimes against a Democratic office? But why does that matter?

      Why are you guys so focused on the boss via affiliation (who already fired him) rather than his criminal deeds. BTW, welcome to your confirmation bias.

    4. Re: No mention of party -- must be a Democrat then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I blame Donald Trump for this.

    5. Re:No mention of party -- must be a Democrat then by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      Precisely.

      If "Cosko "became angry" at Republican senators questioning Kavanaugh -- so he posted contact information for Senators Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, and Orrin Hatch " (all Republicans) didn't convince you, then a quick check of Wiki would confirm:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Maggie Hassan is a democrat.

      --
      -Styopa
    6. Re: No mention of party -- must be a Democrat then by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

      Yup. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

  7. Re:Doxxing a senator? by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  8. Re: Stupid childish whataboutism faux logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    By your standards, Reagan was shot by a Democrat so itâ(TM)s for Republicans to shoot Dem Presidents.

    You are an idiot.

  9. Re:Let's play that game by jeff4747 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    Really? Which nominee did they filibuster for over a year? (If you want to save some time, they didn't.)

    Also, you're wrong about "filibustering" Garland. McConnell wouldn't even let there be a hearing in the Judiciary Committee, so there was no filibuster.

    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

    Wow do you not have a very good grasp of time.

    The person who blocked impeachment was Pelosi. Obama's campaign had not started yet in January 2007, when Pelosi declared "Impeachment is off the table". Also, Obama at that point had very little institutional power, since he'd only been a Senator for a short time by that point.

    (This despite Democrats holding firm majorities in both houses at the time.)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    Senate was 49+2 yielding a truly massive one seat majority.
    House was 233 to 202, yielding a 31 seat majority.

    For those who are not quite familiar with the Constitution, conviction in the Senate requires 67 votes.

    Which 16 Republicans do you think would actually place party over country and convict? Keep in mind that almost all of those Senators are still in the Senate, and exactly zero of them are willing to put country over party under the Trump administration.

  10. Re: Doxxing a senator? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't think this site has enough space to list the links to Trump's hiring mess.

  11. Re:Let's play that game by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    I'll bookmark the parent comment as "destroyed by facts, don't trust in the future". Thanks, jeff474747.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  12. "pleaded guilty" by astrofurter · · Score: 1

    Oh how I do love the smell of coerced false confession in the morning!

  13. Nowhere in the article is the word Democrat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    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

  14. A radical progressive speaks out! by sgt_doom · · Score: 1

    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.

    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 // 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).
    Why hasn't this Christine Blasey Ford been devoting her life to the pursuit of Kavanaugh if she is so credible????

    1. Re:A radical progressive speaks out! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why hasn't this Christine Blasey Ford been devoting her life to the pursuit of Kavanaugh if she is so credible????

      Because most people want to forget about traumatizing experiences, not dwell on them for 30 years. As it is she eventually had to get therapy for it, four years before Kavanaugh was nominated, which is pretty convincing evidence that it happened, it did hurt her, and she didn't invent it to derail a Trump nominee (how the fuck was she supposed to know that Trump would be elected in four year's time, let alone that he'd nominate Kavanaugh?)

    2. Re:A radical progressive speaks out! by Can'tNot · · Score: 1

      two were discredited, at least one of them facing criminal charges, last I heard on the other they were unsure to charge her.

      This surprised me so I went looking, as near as I can tell none of this is true. None of the three have been discredited, and none of the three have been charged with anything. One of the three was referred to the justice department for criminal investigation by a Republican senator. That's it.

      This comment: "Why hasn't this Christine Blasey Ford been devoting her life to the pursuit of Kavanaugh if she is so credible????" is absolutely insane.

  15. Re:Well, golly! by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    Too bad Hassan can't share Cosko's cell. Both senators from New Hampshire are villains.

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  16. Re: Let's play that game by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    When you see attempting to return the discussion to what actually happened as a partisan issue, you are the problem.

  17. A comedian! by Daralantan · · Score: 1

    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!

  18. Capital Police? by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

    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?

  19. Re: Stupid childish whataboutism faux logic by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    I thought the goal posts were "crimes committed while in actual government positions".

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20