parrish, mike
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">huffpo</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="1" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A little more than halfway through the new <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russian-officers-indicted-mueller-investigation_us_5b48c550e4b0bc69a786c871" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="1" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">29-page indictment</a> handed up by the grand jury investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election is an intriguing tidbit: An unnamed congressional candidate reached out to Russian intelligence operatives posing as a hacker named Guccifer 2.0, seeking dirt on their opponent.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="2" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The outreach came on Aug. 15, 2016, after it was clear Guccifier 2.0 ― whom the indictment identifies as part of GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Russian military ― had hacked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="3" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Russian intelligence operatives responded to the request with information related to the candidate’s opponent, according to the relevant portion of the indictment, pictured below:</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="4" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team didn’t reveal who the candidate was, and while several GOP congressional candidates benefited from the DCCC hack, the details don’t quite match up with previously reported incidents.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="5" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>One name that has come up is Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Ryan Costello.</b> The operatives posing as Guccifer leaked documents revealing that Costello’s Democratic opponent, Mike Parrish, was not the top choice of national Democratic operatives to challenge the Republican. The documents, which were <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/292391-exclusive-guccifer-20-hacked-memos-expand-on-pennsylvania-house-races" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:5;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="3" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">leaked to The Hill</a> and the subject of an Aug. 23, 2016, story, showed DCCC operatives attempting to recruit another Democratic candidate into the race. </font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="6" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But Costello’s team said it opted to not use the damaging material ― he was a heavy favorite to win re-election.</b></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="7" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“When news broke that this material had likely been stolen by a foreign actor, we immediately said, ‘We’re not going to use it,’” Vince Galko, a strategist who worked for Costello, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/republicans-reticent-over-use-of-hacked-documents-in-midterms/559346/" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:7;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="4" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">told The Atlantic</a> earlier this year. </font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="8" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Costello’s congressional communications director, Natalie McLaughlin, had a blunt response when asked if Costello was the candidate who reached out to Guccifer 2.0: “Absolutely not." <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The other candidates to benefit from the DCCC hack were clustered in Florida: GOP Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Ron DeSantis and <b>Brian Mast.</b> But the information on their opponents appeared to be posted independently by Aaron Nevins, a Florida lobbyist and journalist.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="10" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nevins is mentioned in the next paragraph of the indictment as the “then-registered state lobbyist and online source of political news” who received 2.5 gigabytes of data stolen from the DCCC, including “donor records and personal identifying information for more than 2,000 Democratic donors.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="11" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The data Nevins received from Guccifer was extremely valuable, and contained information on the two candidates running in a primary to challenge Curbelo.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> An operative for Mast <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-alleged-russian-hacker-teamed-up-with-florida-gop-operative-1495724787" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:11;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="10" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">admitted to The Wall Street Journal</a> he adjusted his strategy after the leaks. “I did adjust some voting targets based on some data I saw,” Mast consultant Anthony Bustamante said. </span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="12" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Florida GOP consultant turned #NeverTrump talking head Rick Wilson <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1017827648360370177" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="11" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">pointed a finger</a> at Mast as the candidate mentioned in the indictment. A spokesman for Mast denied any contact with the hackers: “Congressman Mast and his campaign 100 percent did not have any contact with Guccifer.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="13" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A spokeswoman for Curbelo issued a similar denial and added that Curbelo hoped the Justice Department would reveal who the candidate who requested the information was.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="14" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Neither he nor anyone on his campaign has ever contacted any foreign agent to request illegally obtained documents or information,” Curbelo spokeswoman Joanna Rodriguez <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article214837355.html" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:14;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="12" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">told the Miami Herald</a>. </font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="15" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>DeSantis,</b> who represents a safely Republican district in north Florida, is now running in the GOP primary for Florida governor with President Donald Trump’s endorsement and has repeatedly tried to end special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.<b> He’s also denied any contact with Guccifer 2.0.</b></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="16" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The publicly available trail of breadcrumbs ends there. There are no other indications of who the candidate who requested the information could be. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office <a href="https://twitter.com/OKnox/status/1017840897369804801" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:16;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="13" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">says</a> it doesn’t know anything beyond what’s in the indictment, and Democratic operatives are similarly baffled.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="17" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.75rem;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevin Robillard is a senior political reporter for HuffPost. Do you have information or theories on the mystery candidate? Reach Kevin at <a href="mailto:Kevin.robillard@huffpost.com" target="blank" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:17;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="14" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">kevin.robillard@huffpost.com</a>.</font></span></p></div>