Exclusive: Hacker leaks personal info of Dem donors

The hacker or hackers behind the cyberattack on Democratic groups resurfaced Friday, leaking a new batch of documents exclusively to The Hill. 

The hack, widely attributed to Russia, targeted Democrats and Democratic entities including the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). 

{mosads}The DCCC records leaked to The Hill by a hacker using the name Guccifer 2.0 include the names, Social Security numbers and other personal information of big-ticket donors as well as memos used to prepare House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, President Barack Obama and DCCC officials for a fundraising event.

The documents released to The Hill are only the first section of a much larger cache. The bulk, the hacker said, will be released on WikiLeaks. A few pages, including cell phone numbers and personal email addresses of House Democrats, were posted to Guccifer 2.0’s website Friday night.

Many of the documents sent to The Hill center around a DCCC fundraising dinner held at the house of Virginia donor Tori Winkler Thomas, featuring Obama, Pelosi, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virg.) and DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján.

The package appears to include forms used to vet attendees, a seating chart, thank you notes, place cards name tags, and annotated lists of targets for ticket sales including follow-up plans — one name marked with “DB,” presumably for Don Beyer, reads “spoke with but said she is tapped out now due to candidate checks, following up anyway.”  

The target donor databases included in the cache include contact information, Social Security numbers and past donation values. Since the dinner cost $33,000 a head – though memos note Beyer was selling tickets for the bargain price of $16,000 – those past donation values are routinely very high. 

Individually tailored memos to all featured Democrats provide thorough biographies of anybody who a headliner might come in contact with. The memo for President Obama includes a detailed bio of Nancy Pelosi. 

Talking points for the event, which were more or less explanations of legal donation maximums and what those donations go to, include a section on the DCCC legal fund, maximum donation of $100,200, and lists “Provides critical resources for the counting of ballots” as a top seling point.

The event was on track to earn $500,000. 

In an emailed comment, DCCC National Press Secretary Meredith Kelly said “As previously noted, the DCCC has been the target of a cybersecurity incident, and we are cooperating with federal law enforcement in their ongoing investigation. We are aware of reports that documents claimed to be from our network have been released and are investigating their authenticity.”

Guccifer 2.0 had been silent since WikiLeaks posted a trove of emails from the DNC, a hack he has repeatedly claimed credit for. It was around that time the intelligence community ramped up speculation that the self-proclaimed apolitical Romanian, lone wolf hacker was actually a Russian intelligence agency. 

Guccifer 2.0 had leaked documents and communicated with The Hill before his last three weeks of silence cut communications to The Hill, as well. 

His first question when he once again made contact was “What do people say about me?”