Democrat Staffer Jackson Cosko, Who Doxxed Senators' and Their Families in "Self-Righteous" Anger Over Their Defense of Brett Kavanaugh, Headed for Prison

Where he belongs.

The Daily Caller News Foundation:

A former aide to Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is headed to prison Wednesday for what prosecutors said was the largest known data theft in Senate history.

The former aide, Jackson Cosko, pleaded guilty in April to crimes related to an unparalleled effort to ransack a Senate office, extorting a Democratic senator, illegally harming Republicans for their political views, and blackmailing a witness.

Prosecutors asked for nearly five years in prison for Cosko, a onetime congressional IT aide to Hassan. Cosko admitted he stole the New Hampshire Democrat's data out of revenge for being fired, then used it to doxx Republicans during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.

"The government believes that a significant sentence would help to make clear that difference of political opinion do not entitle people to engage in politically motivated, criminal attacks threatening elected officials with whom he disagrees, and would thereby encourage respect for the law, and deter future criminal conduct," prosecutors wrote.

New details emerged in their sentencing memo that made the case of Cosko -- the Bernie Sanders-supporting son of a millionaire San Francisco developer with ties to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- even more shocking.

A second Hassan staffer who was friends with Cosko served as his accomplice in exchange for rent money helped him physically break into the office at night and pilfer internal emails even after he was fired, prosecutors' sentencing memo shows.

The Daily Caller News Foundation first reported that the accomplice, who has since been fired, is Samantha DeForest-Davis. Hassan's office subsequently confirmed her identity, yet DeForest-Davis has not been charged with any crime.

Even after Cosko was arrested and a computer was quarantined, Capitol Police and Senate employees did not realize that keylogger devices were plugged in to many of the office's computers, according to prosecutors. The devices continued to beam every keystroke -- including passwords to personal and business accounts -- over a WiFi signal that could be accessed from the public hallway.

The Senate later realized that it was still being spied on only because Cosko informed government agents of the devices, the memo says. Police still have been unable to detect the devices's WiFi signals, making it impossible to rule out that they aren't plugged in elsewhere in Congress.

Prosecutors said Cosko had "self-righteous entitlement" and a "belief that he could violate the sanctity of the United States Senate at will and threaten individual Senators as he pleased."

He wanted to use stolen data "to punish people who disagreed with his politics" by publishing the personal information of Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Orrin hosta, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Mitch McConnell, the memo says, which noted that Cosko laughed about his actions.

...

"The defendant operated under the belief that he was entitled to inflict emotional distress upon United States Senators and their families, simply because they disagreed with the defendant and had different political views," prosecutors wrote. "The government believes that there appears to have been an increase in similar criminal harassment, particularly through social media channels, by people across the political spectrum."

...

Prosecutors dismissed arguments by Cosko's team of attorneys that drugs were behind the defendant's behavior and that high-end counseling and treatment paid for by his parents could cure it. They said Cosko's behavior was premeditated and deliberate and that he took pleasure in learning of Republicans' pain.

Prosecutors said Cosko laughed "aha it ruined [hosta's] wifes birthday [sic]."

Oberlin College has just offered Jackson Cosko a tenured professorship. He will join the Department of Will This Fit In My Butt Studies.

posted by Ace of Spades at 12:04 PM

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