A federal judge slammed the gavel down on a former Democratic aide Wednesday, and it likely left President Donald Trump — and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — smiling.
The former aide, 27-year-old Jackson A. Cosko, was given a four-year sentence after leaking the private information of five GOP senators during the confirmation hearings of Kavanaugh.
It’s called “doxing” — a relatively new, sneaky way of posting a person’s private information, such as their phone number or address, to public websites. Doxing is done to cause a person to become fearful of attack or harrassment.
Cosko did it to pressure Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., Rand Paul, R-K.Y., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Mike Lee, R-Utah and former senator of Utah Orrin Hatch. All five voted the “yes” after a controversial hearing in which Kavanaugh was grilled for weeks over unproven rape allegations.
After the confirmation hearing, Cosko retaliated by putting the five senators’ lives in danger.
A second aide, Samantha Deforest Davis, has also been charged in helping Cosko in the doxing plot.
“Prosecutors alleged Wednesday that Davis was persuaded by Cosko to ‘wipe down’ Senate computers he had hacked. Davis now faces two misdemeanor charges: one federal count of aiding and abetting computer fraud and a District count of attempted evidence tampering,” Fox News reported.
The four-year sentence handed down to Cosko has been a long-awaited response to her crime — an unprecedented sentence in response to an increasingly serious problem in politics. Prosecutors said that by posting the private information, Cosko intended to provoke others to harm the senators.
Fox News Judge Napolitano agreed with the federal judges’ decision.
“I think the sentence was appropriate,” he said on “Fox and Friends.”
“It seems harsh for doxxing, but this message has to be sent to people.”
The Horne editorial team