Republican Party

The NRCC Says They Were Hacked by Foreign Agents

Written by SK Ashby

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, was breached by unknown agents earlier this year according to Politico.

This is a very curious case because the breach was reportedly detected all the way back in April, but we're just learning about it now because none of the GOP's senior leaders were told about it.

An internal investigation was initiated and the FBI was alerted to the attack, said the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the incident.

However, senior House Republicans — including Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) — were not informed of the hack until POLITICO contacted the NRCC on Monday with questions about the episode. Rank-and-file House Republicans were not told, either.

While party officials would not explicitly say who they believe was behind the attack, they did tell Politico that they believe foreign agents were responsible.

In any case, the party's emails were reportedly compromised for a period of at least three months during which time their accounts were actively "monitored." It's baffling that neither party leadership or their staff were notified that several months worth of their private emails may have been compromised. Politico reports that none of them knew about it until they asked to comment on the breach.

I don't believe it would take too many guesses to figure out which foreign intelligence agency was responsible for this.