http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/289085-fbi-opens-probe-into-dnc-hack By Katie Bo Williams - 07/25/16 11:44 AM EDT
The FBI has launched an investigation into the hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the agency said on Monday.
"The FBI is investigating a cyber intrusion involving the DNC and is working to determine the nature and scope of the matter," the agency said in a statement, according to multiple reports. "A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously, and the FBI will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace.”
On Friday, WikiLeaks published 20,000 emails stolen from the committee, many of them showing an effort by DNC officials to boost Hillary Clinton's presidential primary bid.
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced on Sunday that she will step down following the convention in the wake of the leaked emails.
The hack, first reported in June, is widely believed by security experts to be the work of Russian intelligence groups. The DNC itself has pinned the attack on Russia.
Initially, the leak was limited to the committee's opposition research on Donald Trump.
But the timing of Friday's dump of emails — just days before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia — has sparked fears that Russia is attempting to manipulate the U.S. election to benefit the Republican nominee.
Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, argued on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the emails were “leaked by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.”
"I don't think it's coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our convention here, and I think that's disturbing," Mook said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
Trump has pushed back on the theory.
“The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me," he tweeted early Monday.
The contents of the emails have plunged the convention into chaos and by Monday morning, some polls already showed that Trump has regained the lead in the race for the first time since May.
The FBI's investigation into the politically charged hack comes just weeks after it closed its contentious probe of Clinton's private email server. FBI Director James Comey and the Department of Justice at large faced fierce criticism for his decision not to recommend charges in that case.
