It is being reported that the Russian hacking of state and local election databases was more extensive than previously reported and some of the stolen information might have ended up in the Trump campaign’s hands.
TIME is reporting that Russian hacked private voter data may have ended up in the hands of the Trump campaign:
The fact that private data was stolen from states is separately providing investigators a previously unreported line of inquiry in the probes into Russian attempts to influence the election. In Illinois, more than 90% of the nearly 90,000 records stolen by Russian state actors contained drivers license numbers, and a quarter contained the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, according to Ken Menzel, the General Counsel of the State Board of Elections.
Congressional investigators are probing whether any of this stolen private information made its way to the Trump campaign, two sources familiar with the investigations tell TIME.
“If any campaign, Trump or otherwise, used inappropriate data the questions are, How did they get it? From whom? And with what level of knowledge?†the former top Democratic staffer on the House Intelligence Committee, Michael Bahar, tells TIME. “That is a crux of the investigation.”
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The Trump campaign could use the private data of voters to build a database that would help them their campaign to specific voters. If the Russian hacked data ended up with the Trump campaign, that would be the collusion smoking gun. The data would be extremely valuable to the Trump campaign, and if Trump was working with Russia could be useful in helping the Russians tamper with voter records to undermine U.S. democracy.
Investigators need to follow the hacking trail because of the data ended up with the Trump campaign it will be clear proof that Trump and the Russians were working together to steal a presidential election.
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