Newest WikiLeaks email dump proves DNC officials colluded to secure Clinton nomination

Hillary Clinton just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to email — nor should she. WikiLeaks today, posted a treasure trove of messages to and from top democratic party officials in the days and weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

Containing nearly 20,000 emails with more than 8,000 attachments from DNC officials, and covering a period from January 2015 to May 2016, the leaks are reportedly from a hacker known as ‘Guccifer 2,’ — an homage to the hacker responsible for multiple high-level attacks targeting US politicians (including two separate presidents) — although Motherboard and The Washington Post surmise that it was actually a group of Russian government hackers, not a single bad actor.

WikiLeaks hasn’t identified the source.

Contained inside was evidence of collusion against Bernie Sanders by party officials, fake Craigslist ads targeting Donald Trump and “off the record” information shared with reporters in hopes that it wouldn’t remain off the record. The emails are just part of the “Hillary Leaks” Wikileaks plans to share in the coming days and weeks. Additionally, you’ll find details of DNC CEO Amy Dacey outlining a plan to bring up Bernie Sanders’ religion to sway a largely christian populace as well as details about what dollar amount you’ll need to donate to get that oh-so-valuable face time with Hillary Clinton.

And that’s just scratching the surface of the massive email leak.

Implicated are several high-ranking DNC officials, as well as Clinton herself. WikiLeaks deserves some criticism too, for — either intentionally or accidentally — foregoing the typical redacting process to protect innocent parties involved. It’s not clear whether the omission was accidental, however; WikiLeaks is a firm believer in radical transparency and not redacting the email could have been by design.

To search the database yourself, you can visit WikiLeaks and use simple language search. Queries like “Sanders” and “campaign” will pull up dozens, if not hundreds of results. The results are in plaintext and involve listings containing donor email addresses, home addresses, social security numbers, passport numbers, donation amounts and even credit card numbers — all of which WikiLeaks sent out into the world after a simple tweet:

RELEASE: 19,252 emails from the US Democratic National Committee https://t.co/kpFxYDoNyX #Hillary2016 #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/Pft8wnOujl

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 22, 2016

Many have pointed out the difference in crowd size between the Sanders and Clinton campaigns, rightly pointing to the massive showings for the former and the relative duds of the latter (by comparison) in addition to the neck-and-neck race when foregoing delegate counts — which Clinton won by a large margin.

Also interesting is the decidedly equal amounts of campaign financing from private parties (not Super PACs) each was able to raise.

The emails go a long way to prove just how broken the electoral college system is, a system that relies on delegates — not the popular vote — to nominate presidential candidates.  In what most of us sensed was a rigged system all along, WikiLeaks blowing the cover off of collusion to secure a Clinton nomination should surprise no one. That said, the proof is in the pudding, or so they say, and this leak should do a great deal to firm up that stance and hopefully bring about positive change.

We know one thing for sure, today is just the beginning. In the days to follow — as we begin to thoroughly comb through the emails — there’s no telling what other revelations may come to light.

Stay tuned.