Jackson Cosko, a former Democratic staffer for Sheila Jackson-Lee and New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan was sentenced yesterday to 48 months in prison for doxing Republican U.S. Senators during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings of 2018.
Cosko pleaded guilty in April to two counts of making public restricted personal Information, one count of computer fraud, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors say that Cosko was upset at the Kavanaugh hearings on September 27, 2018, so he “maliciously publishing the personal home addresses and telephone numbers of Senators Lindsay Graham, Orrin Hatch, and Mike Lee” in an effort to “intimidate the Senators, and with the knowledge and intent that others who learned of the information would then use the information to intimidate the three aforementioned Senators, as well as members of their immediate families, by using the information that the defendant had now made public.”
Cosko later published Sens Rand Paul & Mitch McConnell’s personal home addresses and telephone numbers as the senate discussed a potential investigation into the doxing.
Federal prosecutors say that Cosko’s crimes “spanned several months and reflected a deliberate malice and self-righteous entitlement that distinguishes his offense conduct from purely impulsive, one-time mistakes, and from offenses driven solely by intoxication or addition.”
Prior to joining the staff of the CongressWOMAN Sheila Jackson-Lee, Cosko was an aide for New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan.After he was fired from her office, investigators say carried out “burglaries and sophisticated data theft offenses directed at the office...” of Hassan.
In addition, a second aide to Sen. Hassan is now facing federal charges stemming from Cosko’s scheme.Court documents accuse Samantha Deforest Davis of working with 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.
Flashback from KPRC-TV from Oct.