DNC Leak From Guccifer 2.0 Reveals ‘Pay To Play’ Corruption

Another DNC leak from hacker Guccifer 2.0 appears to reveal a “pay to play” scheme among Democratic National Committee (DNC) donors and staff, with the largest donors often receiving high-level positions in the administration of President Barack Obama.

The DNC leak has been widely circulated by the organization Wikileaks, which calls for transparency in government. This latest leak is said to be the work of an anonymous hacker who goes by the online moniker of Guccifer 2.0.

The DNC leak documents reveal a tie between high-level donors and appointments to the United States government, particularly ambassadorships. True Activist has published a partial list of these donors and their appointments. In one case, donor Mathew Barzun gave more than $3.5 million to the DNC, and he was later appointed as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. In another, donor Charlie Rivkin gave over $2.5 million, and he was appointed as the Ambassador to France. Later, he was appointed as an Assistant Secretary of State.

The appointments were not limited to ambassadorships, however. Another top donor, Julius Genachowski, donated nearly $3.5 million to the DNC and was later made Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, a position he held from 2009 to 2013. In another incident, donor Frank Sanchez donated $3.4 million, and he was named Under-Secretary of Commerce. Tony West donated roughly $1 million, and he was hired as an Associate Attorney General the very same day.

The DNC leak also includes emails that suggest that the system of rewarding top donors with government positions was well known and widespread. One such alleged email between staffers came from an archive of internal Organizing for America documents, formerly Obama for America, and it deals directly with such relationships.

“Can we set up a time for a very brief call to go over our process for handling donations from donors who have given us pay to play letters? Want to make sure we have a robust process in place to make sure that donations that come in from those donors, in any form, get put into the operating account.”

This latest DNC leak from Guccifer 2.0 comes after the August 31 release of other DNC documents, including a memo advising Democratic candidates on how to deal with Black Lives Matter protesters. The revelation of the memo caused outrage in the Black Lives Matter movement and highlighted the increasing difficulty the DNC is having containing the fallout from the ongoing stream of leaks.

DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile, herself a replacement for former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was forced to resign over emails released in a previous DNC leak, addressed the new leak, according to Politico.

“There’s one person who stands to benefit from these criminal acts, and that’s Donald Trump,” Brazile claimed in a statement Tuesday, going on to say that Trump has “publicly encouraged further Russian espionage to help his campaign.”

Brazile’s statement is a continuation of the narrative that the latest DNC leak is, as the organization has said about other leaks, the work of Russian intelligence services seeking to influence the 2016 election cycle. Brazile also warned those looking into the documents to use “extreme caution,” as hackers are sometimes known to embed malicious software into such data dumps and to sometimes forge documents. Regardless of the source, previous information leaked from the DNC has proven to be authentic. Brazile stated that DNC lawyers are reviewing the new information to assess their veracity and identify any forged documentation.

The Obama administration itself has not officially blamed Russia for the theft of information, and Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has denied any involvement. However, The New York Times has reported that intelligence officials and cybersecurity analysts have “high confidence” that the Russian government was involved.

The latest DNC leak contains some 600 megabytes of data, some of it very sensitive, including copious spreadsheets on donors, often including their home addresses, email information, and phone numbers. The DNC has called the leak “criminal” and pledges to hold those who were involved responsible.

[Featured Image by John Minchillo/AP Images]