As we reported three weeks ago, the notorious Romanian hacker Marcel Lazar known also as Guccifer who first exposed Hillary Clinton’s private email address made a bombshell claim when he claimed that he also gained access to the former Secretary of State’s “completely unsecured” server. “It was like an open orchid on the Internet,” Lazar told NBC News. “There were hundreds of folders.”
This took place shortly after Lazar was extradited from Romania to the US to face hacking charges.
In the latest twist, Politico reports, Lazar is now expected to plead guilty this week, clearing the way for his unfettered cooperation with federal prosecutors, suggesting that all of his heretofore unverified claims about hacking into Hillary’s server will be duly investigated. If confirmed, this could open a new chapter in the FBI’s criminal probe into Hillary’s email use and/or abuse.
As Politico adds, Lazar is scheduled to appear in federal court in Alexandria, Va. Wednesday morning for a change of plea hearing, according to court records. A prosecution spokesman did not immediately respond to a message seeking confirmation that the guilty plea is part of a plea bargain with prosecutors. A defense attorney declined to comment. Such plea deals usually oblige a defendant to assist authorities in all ongoing investigations.
Lazar was indicted in 2014 on nine felony charges stemming from his alleged hack into the emails of several prominent Americans, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a relative of former President George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, and former Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal. A set of Blumenthal’s emails were published online in 2013, disclosing a private email address Clinton used. She later changed the address.
Allegedly, Hillary’s personal email server was also among those hacked.
Clinton’s email arrangement is the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation, believed to be focused on how email messages deemed classified wound up on her server. Some reports have speculated that Lazar could demonstrate how vulnerable Clinton’s unusual email set-up was to foreign hackers, but it’s unclear how significant that fact would be to a decision about whether to seek criminal charges against Clinton or others involved in creating or using the unofficial email system.
If the DOJ’s ongoing “effort” to squash the probe – often in direct confronation with the FBI – is any indication, even full data dump by the Romanian may not spur any action, unless of course it is Obama’s intention to thaw the DOJ out of its deep freeze slumber right before the Democratic convention and somehow insert Joe Biden as the presumptive presidentical candidate.
via http://ift.tt/1s7x3o9 Tyler Durden