The Plot to Hack America

If an advocate of the Republican Party, a citizen hacktivist, or a malicious “Black Hat” hacker anarchist had perpetrated the intrusion, it would have been a much sloppier operation. Additionally, the perpetrators would likely have taken or destroyed the dossiers of every Republican Party candidate in a cyber version of a bonfire. Hacktivists love the anarchy of letting systems administrators know that they have been violated. On the other hand “White Hat” hackers, internet security specialists who often win contracts by illegally entering systems usually leave notes so they can be contacted and help fix security flaws. They generally let the administrators know by leaving “I told you that you were vulnerable” messages in high-value files. All of this would have been old hat for the DNC computer administrators and CrowdStrike protection analysts, but the target of this second hacking was peculiar. It ignored everything and everyone except one set of files: The opposition research folders on New York City billionaire Donald J. Trump. This 2016 intrusion could arguably be called Watergate 2.0, but unlike the original Watergate, this time the materials would be used in a political process to damaging effect.

Trump’s Revenge: Erasing Obama’s Presidency

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is an annual spring event hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association. Sometimes referred to as “nerd prom,” the dinner brings journalists, politicians, and celebrities to the same room and is often criticized for fostering a cozy relationship between the media and the very people they are supposed to cover. The President usually delivers a humorous monologue that is then followed by a performance by a comedian. Donald Trump was a guest of The Washington Post at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

It was just a month before the dinner that Trump had become a leading voice in the so-called “birther movement,” raising the preposterous charge that President Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii as he claimed, but rather in Kenya. Trump publically and repeatedly called on President Obama to release his birth certificate. The New York Times wrote, “The more Mr. Trump questioned the legitimacy of Mr. Obama’s presidency, the better he performed in the early polls of the 2012 Republican field, springing from fifth place to a virtual tie for first.”³ Trump’s notoriety as a blustering TV showman using blunt, racially-tinged conspiracy theories was making him a rising star in conservative circles. These insults were not lost on the President, so Obama dedicated a notable portion of his 19-minute speech to making jabs at the New York businessman:

Donald Trump is here tonight. Now I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier—no one is prouder—to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald. And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter: Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac? But all kidding aside, obviously we all know about your credentials and breadth of experience. For example—no seriously, just recently, in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice, at the steakhouse, the men’s cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around, but you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership, and so ultimately you didn’t blame Lil Jon or Meat Loaf, you fired Gary Busey. And these are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir. Well handled. Say what you will about Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House.⁴