Like it or not, Donald Trump is at the center of the public eye and is likely to stay there for a long time, whether he wins the 2016 election or not. He’s made himself the de facto leader of a political group that’s unlikely to go away any time soon, after all. But his newfound political clout has a few downsides, as he’s learning. And it might have quite a few more now that Russia is taking an interest in the Donald.
The Washington Post is reporting that the Democratic National Committee had its computers breached by Russian hackers sponsored by the government. They didn’t bother with the donor lists, the financial information, or even personal data, all of which went untouched. No, instead, they wanted everything they could find on Trump, including the DNC’s database of “opposition research.” In other words, the Russians have been digging for dirt. In fact, it appears that these are two separate attacks from two different Russian intelligence agencies. Maybe Trump wants to rethink the support he’s offered Putin in the past.
The experts interviewed by the Post point out that this is less an attempt to compromise the election and more just Russia getting caught up on its American politics. Trump is relatively new to mainstream politics, and so intelligence agencies around the world are trying to learn more about him. Somewhere, right now, a major government likely has a bunch of psychologists watching every episode of The Apprentice and parsing every sentence of The Art of the Deal. Clinton has been under scrutiny for decades, so everybody has an opinion of her. Trump, however, is not, and if he thinks the Washington Post is a tough critic, we suspect the Russians will be even less kind.
(via The Washington Post)