Let’s say you have a 211-page attack file on someone you need to beat in an election, and all the material from public sources gleaned across decades—TV interviews, newspaper and magazine stories, etc. And let’s say it would look petty and desperate to just dump it all at once—what would be the best way to “accidentally” get it out to the public?
If you ask Donald Trump, the best way is to leak it. In a statement on Wednesday, he accused the DNC of hacking itself, so to speak, in order to put all its anti-Trump material in the public sphere.
“This is all information that has been out there for many years,” he said. “Much of it is false and/or entirely inaccurate. We believe it was the DNC that did the ‘hacking’ as a way to distract from the many issues facing their deeply flawed candidate and failed party leader. Too bad the DNC doesn’t hack Crooked Hillary’s 33,000 missing emails.”
As for the truth, it’s probably very different. The security company investigating the leaks has said that the Russian government was responsible, which makes a lot more sense. The entire file was posted online at Gawker and The Smoking Gun yesterday, and you can read our compilation of the 28 juiciest passages here.