‘Self-Righteous:’ Dem Staffer Headed to Prison as Prosecutors Look to Make Example of Him for Politically-Motivated Crimes Against Republicans

‘Self-Righteous:’ Dem Staffer Headed to Prison as Prosecutors Look to Make Example of Him for Politically-Motivated Crimes Against Republicans
Senator Maggie Hassan at the Newsuem TIME Presents: The Opioid Diaries With James Nachtwey in Washington on March 6, 2018. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for TIME
|Updated:
  • A former Democratic congressional aide who doxxed Republican senators during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh will be sentenced to prison Wednesday.
  • Former computer administrator Jackson Cosko carried out what prosecutors said was the largest known data theft in Senate history and used it to blackmail a witness, to plot to extort a senator and to threaten others.
  • He left operational spy devices on the Senate network that went undetected by police even after he was arrested and his plot was discovered, prosecutors said.
  • Prosecutors are seeking to make an example of Cosko for criminally attacking people who disagreed with him politically, citing a rise in such incidents.
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.