Hacked Clinton emails reveal disturbing surveillance, tracking of journalists

• Guccifer 2.0 struck again and leaked emails from a Hillary Clinton volunteer to the website the Smoking Gun 
• Conversations from Sarah Hamilton’s Gmail account show the Clinton campaign’s moves to keep reporters away from the candidate
• The emails between press aides and volunteers show them trying to track journalists’ movements at campaign events  

(Article by Nikki Schwab)

The hacked Gmail account of one of Hillary Clinton’s volunteers shows how the campaign surveils journalists who might get too close to the candidate.

Emails phished by Guccifer 2.0, who’s dumped caches of documents from the Democratic National Committee onto the internet, show Clinton aides telling volunteer Sarah Hamilton to ‘keep an eye’ on certain reporters.

Hamilton’s Gmail account was hacked using a spoofed Gmail log-in page, according to the Smoking Gun, which released a handful of email conversations today.

In one, an email chain from February, aides and advance staffers discussed how to keep Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton safe from he crowd of reporters on hand to cover the trio at a Las Vegas rally.

With all three Clintons expected to work the crowed after the speaking portion of the event had concluded one campaign operative suggested that the rope line be ‘covered with staff bodies to make sure the crowd can get to the ropeline and you stay in front of the cameras,’ according to documents given to the Smoking Gun.

National Press Advance Desk aide Sarah Pollack wrote that while ‘press have been politely yet firmly asked to stay in press areas … we should expect press and cameras to move forward for ropeline.’

Clinton hasn’t had an official press conference in 207 days and generally does not answer questions from the press that are hollered at her during these types of events.

At the Las Vegas event, Clinton’s people exchanged emails about the movement of journalists, zeroing especially in on CNN’s Dan Merica, a producer for the network that has been embedded with the campaign.

At one point in the conversation an aggressive French journalist was ‘at stage right,’ at another, Merica was at ‘center right.’

Eight minutes later, according to the emails, an advance team member noted, ‘Dan Merica stage left.’

A minute later, Hamilton told her colleagues that ‘French journos and dan merica heading to stage right.’

An advance team member then reported that ‘Dan America is on backstage bleachers,’ the aide said, misspelling the reporter’s name.

That staffer then wrote, ‘I’m with dan America on back stage bleachers,’ again messing up the CNN producer’s last name.

In Chicago in mid-March in the run-up to the Illinois primary, Clinton had a full day of events and was followed around her hometown by a packed bus of political reporters.

Here it was Chicago Sun-Times columnist and D.C. bureau chief Lynn Sweet who was viewed as the threat.

Reporters, including Sweet, Merica and DailyMail.com, were allowed in especially close proximity to Clinton when she stopped by the Kids Off The Block Memorial to pay tribute to the more than 500 children lost to gun violence in the city of Chicago.

Clinton greeted a number of mothers whose kids died from gunfire.

When reporters got too close to the candidate they were shooed away.

In other instances during the day, reporters were only allowed in a venue for several minutes, or were kept in a roped off area in the back.

In an email to Hamilton with the subject line ‘Lynn Sweet,’ from Clinton’s traveling press secretary Nick Merrill he wrote, ‘Let’s keep an eye on her.’

Hamilton responded with, ‘Yes, I’m sitting next to her on the bus.’

Merrill has yet to reply to a request for comment.

Hamilton’s emails were leaked in what was the latest dump by Guccifer 2.0, which the hacker gave exclusively to the Smoking Gun.

Previously, Guccifer 2.0 used his blog to release documents he grabbed from the Democratic National Committee.

Investigators looking into the DNC hack have said that Guccifer 2.0 is an operative of the Russian government, which the hacker denies.

Instead, he says he’s a Romanian ‘hacktivist’ and a solo player who dubbed himself after the original hacker Guccifer, also a Romanian.

Guccifer notably burrowed into the AOL account of Dorothy Bush Koch, the sister of President George W. Bush, revealing the former president’s painted self-portrait to the world.

Investigators from SecureWorks believe that Gmail accounts for scores of Hillary for America staffers were targeted, including ‘individuals managing Clinton’s communications, travel, campaign finances, and advising her on policy.’

Read more at: www.dailymail.co.uk