DNC Cleans House Following Massive Email Hack

For Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the 2016 presidential campaign has been a series of embarrassing hacking incidents and data leaks (of course they wouldn’t have to worry about such breaches if they had nothing to hide).

As I wrote last Tuesday, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was virtually banned from participating in the Democratic National Convention following an email hack proving that she was biased in favor of Hillary Clinton and against Bernie Sanders (big surprise there). Wasserman Schultz has since been invited to join the Clinton campaign team, but it seems she wasn’t the only one with a bias. 

DNC Chief Executive Officer Amy Dacey, Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall, and Communications Director Luis Miranda have also resigned in wake of the email hack.  

Interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile, who has temporarily stepped in to fill Wasserman Schultz’s position, announced the three resignations this week. She refused to comment on the hacking incident and gave no reason for the resignations. 

Such a restructuring is not ideal just four months before the general election, and Brazile is part of a “transition team” that will pave the way for the permanent party chairman and help position the Dems for November. Former DNC executive director Tom McMahon has been recruited to lead the transition team. 

DNC officials stated yesterday that they are prepared to endure the release of more emails – based on statements by WikiLeaks that it has additional DNC emails in its possession. Over 19,000 internal emails have already been released to the public. 

Brazile stated in an interview yesterday that her goal is to restore “credibility” to the DNC and to keep her party united during this turbulent time. There are even rumors that the DNC is thinking about hiring Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, the FBI has detected additional cyber attacks and is looking into an incident involving the network Clinton’s campaign uses and another incident at the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee).

The White House has refrained from pointing fingers, but many cybersecurity experts believe that Russia is behind the DNC email hack. Clinton has also blamed Russia for the attack. 

Russian’s foreign ministry, on the other hand, claims such accusations are “insulting.”