http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/something-is-terribly-wrong-in-maggie-hassans-office
By Becket Adams
The Washington Examiner
June 20, 2019 02:10 PM
A second former staffer to Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., is now facing federal charges for allegedly aiding a scheme to "dox" Republican senators, their families, and Senate employees during the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Samantha Deforest-Davis acted as an inside woman for 27-year-old Jackson A. Cosko, providing him with access to the junior senator's office in 2018 so that he could illegally download confidential Senate information, according to court documents. Some of the stolen data, which included social security and credit card numbers, home addresses, and personal telephone numbers, was posted to Wikipedia during the Kavanaugh confirmation battle.
Cosko admitted later that he made the information publicly available because he was angry about Republicans' efforts to get the conservative judge confirmed.
Deforest-Davis served in Hassan's office from August 2017 until she was fired in December 2018 after Capitol Police uncovered her reported role in the politically motivated doxing effort, Fox News reports.
Cosko served as a systems administrator for Hassan until May 2018, when he was fired for an undisclosed reason. Later that same year, Cosko enlisted the aide of Deforest-Davis, who was still employed by the senator, to help him steal confidential Senate information. Prosecutors say Deforest-Davis did not give Cosko permission the first time he used her keys to break into Hassan's office, Politico reports. However, prosecutors also allege Deforest-Davis willingly lent Cosko her keys on several occasions afterward. They also alleged she even helped him cover his tracks by wiping down keyboards and mice of his fingerprints.
The two reportedly have a "close relationship," the Politico report notes, citing court documents, adding that Deforest-Davis borrowed money from Cosko to pay rent.
Amazingly enough, even after Cosko was arrested in October 2018, he "continued to mine data through keystroke-logging devices he had installed on several computers in the Senate offices. The devices were only discovered after Cosko informed authorities of their existence," the Washington Examiner's Ellie Bufkin reports.
Cosko pleaded guilty on April 5 to orchestrating what prosecutors describe as "an extraordinarily extensive data-theft scheme, copying entire network drives, sorting and organizing sensitive data, and exploring ways to use that data to his benefit." He pleaded guilty to all five felony charges brought against him. He was sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday.
And all of this was made possible by Deforest-Davis, who granted Cosko access to Hassan's offices and was "persuaded" to try to "wipe down" the computers he hacked, the Washington Post notes. Deforest-Davis has since been charged with one federal count of "aiding and abetting computer fraud" and one District count of "attempted evidence tampering," the Post report adds. The charges come in a criminal information which, as the report helpfully notes, usually signals the defendant's intent to plead guilty.
The 2018 doxing incident, which was spearheaded by a former Hassan staffer and aided by a former Hassan staffer, took place the same year that a 21-year-old Hassan intern screamed "f--k you" at President Trump as he walked through the U.S. Capitol. Which is to say: I think there is something seriously wrong with the culture Hassan has created in her office.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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