Bernie Sanders' campaign punished for reviewing Hillary Clinton's private data

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

published 18 December 2015

The Democratic National Committee has suspended Bernie Sanders' campaign from an important national voter database as punishment for accessing Hillary Clinton's private campaign data when security was compromised, The New York Times reports. A technological problem in the voter data system accidentally made Clinton's proprietary voter data available to see; reportedly four different user accounts from Sanders' campaign ran searches while Clinton's account was exposed, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Sanders' campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said, "After discussion with the D.N.C., it became clear that one of our staffers accessed some modeling data from another campaign. That behavior is unacceptable and that staffer was immediately fired." Briggs added Sanders' campaign data was also made vulnerable.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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