Via Politico: We received internal Trump documents from ‘Robert.’ Then the campaign confirmed it was hacked.
On July 22, POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person — who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as “Robert” — relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official. A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents. The documents are authentic, according to two people familiar with them and granted anonymity to describe internal communications. One of the people described the dossier as a preliminary version of Vance’s vetting file.
The research dossier was a 271-page document based on publicly available information about Vance’s past record and statements, with some — such as his past criticisms of Trump — identified in the document as “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES.” The person also sent part of a research document about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who was also a finalist for the vice presidential nomination.
No doubt many readers will find it frustrating (if not outrageous) that the hack of Trump’s campaign is being treated differently than the hack of Clinton’s campaign in 2016. On a visceral level, I get it.
On a dispassionate level, I agree with Scott Lemieux at LGM.
there obviously can’t be a bright line rule that illegally obtained information provided by ratfuckers can’t be covered, but there should be a rigorous bar to ensure that the communications are genuinely newsworthy and a careful evaluation of why the emails are being leaked and for what purpose.
Of course, Scott also notes that it just so happens that the current approach favors Trump and that the approach in 2016 also favored Trump.
Regardless of the broader discussion, it is yet another piece of evidence that the media is not the liberal, in-the-Democrats-pocket, tool that many claim it to be. (And also a reminder that one media outlet is not the whole of the media–one wonders if “Robert” tried other outlets as well).
I also suspect that the leaked documents weren’t really all that interesting else Politico would not have been able to resist the story. (I mean, one suspects that the research on Vance, for example, isn’t much different than what is publicly known. Indeed, the real story might well be that they did any research on Vance at all, or that having done so, they picked him anyway).
