ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 unpacks the complex tangle of issues surrounding the alleged hacking (or leaking) by Russians (or others) of documents from the servers or computers of Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and the DNC’s chairman, and its relevance to charges of “election meddling” by Russians in the 2016 US presidential election. Charges of “hacking,” usually uncontested by mainstream media, are less robust than they seem. Several knowledgeable sources claim that insider leaking was more likely than hacking. The hacking charges have been politicized not only because they were nurtured by the DNC and its contractor CrowdStrike, but can serve as excuse for the failure of the Clinton campaign to win the election and as a distraction from the disparaging implications for the DNC of the contents hacked/leaked documents.
