Alleged Russian Hacker Sent GOP Operative Stolen Documents: Report

The treasure trove of hacked documents believed to have turned the 2016 presidential election upside down didn’t just involve information swiped from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. A Republican political operative in Florida also received a whopping 2.5 gigabytes of information from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee courtesy of the alleged Russian hacker “Guccifer 2.0,” according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Floridian Aaron Nevins reportedly wrote to Guccifer 2.0, inviting “any Florida based information” to be sent his way, the Journal reported. About 10 days later, Nevins received reams of information related to the committee’s voter-turnout analyses, some of which ended up in a piece posted to the HelloFLA.com blog, the Journal added. The blog, in turn, was sent to then-candidate Donald Trump’s informal adviser Roger Stone.

Allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election reached a fevered pitch following Trump’s recent firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading up an investigation into that very topic. The Justice Department subsequently appointed Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, to serve as special counsel overseeing the investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian espionage.

Guccifer 2.0 has denied links to Russian military intelligence even though U.S. officials believe that to be the case, the Journal noted. The Kremlin has also denied links to the hacker along with any election meddling.

As for Nevins, he told the Journal “he just threw an arrow in the dark.”

In October 2016, Nevins made headlines for attempting to have the U.S. 441 corridor in Broward County closed down on Election Day for a road race that would have run during poll hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nevins, who said he wasn’t going to vote for Trump, sent a request and $50 to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Nevins was quoted by the paper as saying he wasn’t thrilled with the election in general and thought a car race would be “fun” instead. Even though the closing would have shut down a major thoroughfare on Election Day, Nevins insisted he was acting on his own. “I’m not coordinating with the Republican Party or Roger Stone or any of those people,” the paper quoted him as saying.

Read more about Nevins and Guccifer 2.0 in The Wall Street Journal.

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