'Guccifer' casts doubt on Obama administration's Russia hacking claims

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

EXCLUSIVE: Romanian hacker Marcel Lehel Lazar, weighing in from a prison 3,700 miles away on the latest diplomatic dust-up between the U.S. and Russia, told Fox News in an exclusive interview that he doubts the Obama administration's allegations about Moscow directing cyberattacks against Democratic groups in the 2016 election.

 

Lazar, 44, also known as "Guccifer," spoke to Fox News Senior Executive Producer Pamela Browne in a series of recorded phone calls from his Romanian jail cell in late December. He described the administration's allegation of Russia cyber-attacks during the 2016 elections as part of "a fake cyber war."

 

"Americans are crazy about the Russian thing and that Russians are invading the United States,” Lazar said, suggesting the allegations are overblown because of Cold War sensitivities. “It’s crazy ... it’s this hysteria you know?" he said.

 

Lazar has been convicted and sentenced to prison in two separate countries, the U.S. and Romania, for his hacking and taunting of major celebrity and political figures. Lazar is expected to finish his Romanian sentence in 2019 and then will be returned to the U.S. to face 52 months in an American prison after pleading guilty to two counts of a nine-count indictment.

 

Largely regarded as a nuisance hacker motivated through his disillusionment and frustration -- and some say obsession -- with political figures both in the U.S. and Romania, Lazar was the first to expose Hillary Clinton’s use of the private Clintonemail.com address.

 

This revelation ultimately led to the identification of Clinton’s personal account used for all government business while she served as secretary of State. FBI Director James Comey described the handling of classified material as “extremely careless.”

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Wagging the hack?