House Republicans have suffered an email debacle of their own.
After a tumultuous 2016 election rocked by email scandals and database hacking, 2018's midterms seemed to breeze by without incident. But now, Republicans are apparently being told about a "major hack" of "sensitive" National Republican Congressional Committee emails that happened earlier this year, senior party officials tell Politico.
Back in April, an NRCC vendor discovered an "outside intruder" had access to email accounts belonging to four "senior aides," Politico reports. The House's campaign committee quickly started an internal investigation and told the FBI about the apparent hack. It then hired a law firm and a public affairs agency "to help respond to the intrusion," Politico writes. The public affairs agency confirmed the NRCC "was the victim of a cyber intrusion" and that the FBI is investigating what happened.
Yet all the while, top congressional Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wisc.), reportedly knew nothing about it. Tuesday's revelation is likely to be an added blow to a House GOP that lost a crushing 40 seats during the midterms, especially considering President Trump has claimed without proof that Republicans have "better defenses" than Democrats against hacking.
The NRCC wouldn't reveal further details of the hack, but anonymous officials tell Politico they believe it was a "foreign agent." Donor information was not compromised and any exposed information still hasn't become public, those officials also say. Read more at Politico.