Despite the many questions raised over new documents allegedly leaked from the servers of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the hacker known as “Guccifer 2.0” continued to insist Tuesday that the documents were real, and that they were a small preview of much more to come.
In a private chat with BuzzFeed News, Guccifer 2.0 wrote that “all files are authentic” and that they came from the Clinton Foundation’s private server. When asked about the widespread speculation that the documents weren’t legitimate and a statement by the Clinton Foundation that “none of the folders or files shown are from the Clinton Foundation,” Guccifer 2.0 appeared to double down, writing: “is it possible that some ppl r trying to divert attention from my release by spreading false accusations?”…
Yet Guccifer 2.0 refused to answer questions of when the Clinton Foundation servers were hacked, or how the hack was accomplished. Guccifer 2.0 also refused to answer why the documents — which mostly contained donor information — seem to imply some connection between donations to the Clinton Foundation and the receipt of federal funds through the TARP program, which were largely distributed during the administration of George W. Bush. Also left unanswered: why many of the individuals who appear as donors in the documents are not listed as donors in the foundation’s public disclosures.
Some observers speculated that the files came from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which was itself hacked earlier this year. “Given the Russians’ long track record of faking the origin and doctoring the content of documents acquired through cyber attacks, the Committee is working to determine if these were stolen from our network,” Meredith Kelly, DCCC National Press Secretary, told BuzzFeed News….
In previous chats with BuzzFeed News, the Guccifer 2.0 account appeared to type in nearly-fluent English. On Tuesday, however, the account only used short replies — often with emojis — and in broken English.