A former aide to Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is headed to prison Wednesday for what prosecutors said was the largest known data theft in Senate history.
The former aide, Jackson Cosko, pleaded guilty in April to crimes related to an unparalleled effort to ransack a Senate office, extorting a Democratic senator, illegally harming Republicans for their political views, and blackmailing a witness.
Prosecutors asked for nearly five years in prison for Cosko, a onetime congressional IT aide to Hassan. Cosko admitted he stole the New Hampshire Democrat’s data out of revenge for being fired, then used it to doxx Republicans during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
“The government believes that a significant sentence would help to make clear that difference of political opinion do not entitle people to engage in politically motivated, criminal attacks threatening elected officials with whom he disagrees, and would thereby encourage respect for the law, and deter future criminal conduct,” prosecutors wrote.
New details emerged in their sentencing memo that made the case of Cosko — the Bernie Sanders-supporting son of a millionaire San Francisco developer with ties to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — even more shocking.
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There's quite a bit more. The Barr DoJ took a dim view of it all, after initial rumors he'd only get a wrist slap.
UPDATE: Per Politico he got four years. Judge Thomas Hogan: “We have…a society that has become very vicious.” Yeah, like, yeah. Talk to Kavanaugh, or Pat Shanahan, or any number of other GOP nominees about that.
Cosko's accomplice has been charged:
Samantha Deforest-Davis, was charged with two misdemeanors stemming from the same scheme: aiding a computer fraud and evidence tampering.
Cosko is young, insufferably arrogant, and well-connected, not unlike Jussie Smollett; and he abused IT privileges, just like Imran Awan. Difference is, Cosko is headed off to the slammer. He deserves it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a welcome development.
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