Political consultant Aaron Nevins received documents from hacker Guccifer 2.0 and posted some on his blog; Guccifer called the blog to the attention of Trump adviser Roger Stone
The hacking spree that upended the presidential election wasnt limited to Democratic National Committee memos and Clinton-aide emails posted on websites. The hacker also privately sent Democratic voter-turnout analyses to a Republican political operative in Florida named Aaron Nevins.
Learning that hacker Guccifer 2.0 had tapped into a Democratic committee that helps House candidates, Mr. Nevins wrote to the hacker to say: Feel free to send any Florida based information.
Ten days later, Mr. Nevins received 2.5 gigabytes of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee documents, some of which he posted on a blog called HelloFLA.com that he ran using a pseudonym.
Soon after, the hacker sent a link to the blog article to Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, along with Mr. Nevins analysis of the hacked data.
Mr. Nevins confirmed his exchanges after The Wall Street Journal identified him first as the operator of the HelloFLA blog and then as the recipient of the stolen DCCC data. The Journal also reviewed copies of exchanges between the hacker and Mr. Nevins. That the obscure blog had received hacked Democratic documents was previously known, but not the extent of the trove or the bloggers identity.
I just threw an arrow in the dark, Mr. Nevins said in an interview, adding he set up a Dropbox account so whoever was using the Guccifer 2.0 name could send large amounts of material. Later, going through what the hacker sent as someone who actually knows what some of these documents mean, the GOP consultant said he realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.
The episode shows how the hackers activities extended to exposing Democrats get-out-the vote strategies in swing states and informing a Trump ally of hacked data during the national campaign.
U.S. officials believe Guccifer 2.0 is linked to Russian military intelligence. Guccifer 2.0 denies that. The moniker appeared in hacks last year and isnt the same as a Romanian hacker who earlier used the Guccifer name.
....
DCCC documents sent to Mr. Nevins analyzed specific Florida districts, showing how many people were dependable Democratic voters, how many were likely Democratic voters but needed a nudge, how many were frequent voters but not committed and how many were core Republican votersthe kind of data strategists use in planning ad buys and other tactics.
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In hopes of a scoop, he said, he reached out to Guccifer 2.0 last Aug. 12 after seeing a newspaper article about a hack of the DCCC. The hacker using the Guccifer 2.0 name had invited journalists to send questions via Twitter direct messages, which Mr. Nevins did.
More impressed after studying the voter-turnout models, Mr. Nevins told the hacker, Basically if this was a war, this is the map to where all the troops are deployed.
At another point, he told the hacker, This is probably worth millions of dollars."
Hmmm, Guccifer 2.0 responded. ok u owe me a million
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Mr. Nevins said he hasnt been contacted by any investigators about last years political hacking.
He isnt convinced the Russians were behind it, Mr. Nevins said, but even if they were, it doesnt matter to him because the agenda of the hackers seemed to match his own.
If your interests align, he said, never shut any doors in politics.
Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-al...amed-up-with-florida-gop-operative-1495724787
The hacking spree that upended the presidential election wasnt limited to Democratic National Committee memos and Clinton-aide emails posted on websites. The hacker also privately sent Democratic voter-turnout analyses to a Republican political operative in Florida named Aaron Nevins.
Learning that hacker Guccifer 2.0 had tapped into a Democratic committee that helps House candidates, Mr. Nevins wrote to the hacker to say: Feel free to send any Florida based information.
Ten days later, Mr. Nevins received 2.5 gigabytes of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee documents, some of which he posted on a blog called HelloFLA.com that he ran using a pseudonym.
Soon after, the hacker sent a link to the blog article to Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, along with Mr. Nevins analysis of the hacked data.
Mr. Nevins confirmed his exchanges after The Wall Street Journal identified him first as the operator of the HelloFLA blog and then as the recipient of the stolen DCCC data. The Journal also reviewed copies of exchanges between the hacker and Mr. Nevins. That the obscure blog had received hacked Democratic documents was previously known, but not the extent of the trove or the bloggers identity.
I just threw an arrow in the dark, Mr. Nevins said in an interview, adding he set up a Dropbox account so whoever was using the Guccifer 2.0 name could send large amounts of material. Later, going through what the hacker sent as someone who actually knows what some of these documents mean, the GOP consultant said he realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.
The episode shows how the hackers activities extended to exposing Democrats get-out-the vote strategies in swing states and informing a Trump ally of hacked data during the national campaign.
U.S. officials believe Guccifer 2.0 is linked to Russian military intelligence. Guccifer 2.0 denies that. The moniker appeared in hacks last year and isnt the same as a Romanian hacker who earlier used the Guccifer name.
....
DCCC documents sent to Mr. Nevins analyzed specific Florida districts, showing how many people were dependable Democratic voters, how many were likely Democratic voters but needed a nudge, how many were frequent voters but not committed and how many were core Republican votersthe kind of data strategists use in planning ad buys and other tactics.
....
In hopes of a scoop, he said, he reached out to Guccifer 2.0 last Aug. 12 after seeing a newspaper article about a hack of the DCCC. The hacker using the Guccifer 2.0 name had invited journalists to send questions via Twitter direct messages, which Mr. Nevins did.
More impressed after studying the voter-turnout models, Mr. Nevins told the hacker, Basically if this was a war, this is the map to where all the troops are deployed.
At another point, he told the hacker, This is probably worth millions of dollars."
Hmmm, Guccifer 2.0 responded. ok u owe me a million
....
Mr. Nevins said he hasnt been contacted by any investigators about last years political hacking.
He isnt convinced the Russians were behind it, Mr. Nevins said, but even if they were, it doesnt matter to him because the agenda of the hackers seemed to match his own.
If your interests align, he said, never shut any doors in politics.
Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-al...amed-up-with-florida-gop-operative-1495724787