Between March and June 2016, hackers attributed by U.S. intelligence agencies and cybersecurity researchers to Russia’s GRU infiltrated systems used by the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. More than 150,000 stolen emails and other files were distributed through the Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks personas, then published by WikiLeaks. The July 22, 2016 WikiLeaks release included 19,252 DNC emails and 8,034 attachments; a further 8,263 emails were released on November 6. The material exposed donor data, internal strategy, media contacts, and personal information including Social Security and credit-card numbers.
The leaks also revealed DNC officials discussing ways to undermine Bernie Sanders, prompting chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign before the Democratic National Convention; DNC executives Amy Dacey, Brad Marshall, and Luis Miranda later departed, and the party apologized to Sanders supporters. On July 13, 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 GRU officers, alleging that Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks were fronts in a Russian operation to interfere in the election and that stolen emails were transferred to WikiLeaks. Russia and WikiLeaks disputed the attribution, while some Guccifer 2.0 releases were separately identified as fabricated or manipulated propaganda.
