A second aide to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) has been charged with trying to publish the personal contact information of Republican politicians, known as "doxxing."
What's the background?
During the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, someone changed the Wikipedia pages of Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and retired (but then still sitting) Sen. Orrin Hatch to include their home addresses and personal phone numbers.
Jackson A. Cosko, a former aide to Hassan, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and retired Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was later arrested and charged with making restricted personal information public, witness tampering, identity theft, second-degree burglary, unlawful entry, threats in interstate communication, and unauthorized use of a government computer. He also reportedly threatened to release more information if a witness who caught him in the act ever came forward.
Cosko, 27, admitted to publishing this information to punish these senators for their political beliefs, and purposely chose to target them while the Senate Judiciary Committee (on which they all sat) was questioning Kavanaugh.
Cosko already had a criminal record before Hassan hired him to be her IT administrator. He was interning for Jackson Lee when he doxxed the senators.
On Wednesday, Cosko was sentenced to four years in prison.
What happened now?
In addition to Cosko, Samantha Deforest Davis received a misdemeanor charge for aiding a computer fraud, and a second misdemeanor charge for evidence tampering related to the doxxing. She worked as a staff assistant in Hassan's office from April 2017 until December 2018. In 2019, she worked as a legislative correspondent for Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.).
Davis is expected to plead guilty to both charges.
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