Ex-CBS reporter: Cell phone hacking video was 'a visual anecdote' of 'remote intrusions'

In an interview on MSNBC's All In, former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson discussed a cell phone video she released purportedly showing the government hacking into her computer and deleting her work, describing the video to host Chris Hayes as a "visual anecdote."

As part of a push to promote her new book, Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington, Attkisson released a video taken with her cell phone showing lines of copy being deleted on her computer screen, claiming her computer was being hacked. Attkisson used the video to bolster her case that the government was interfering with her investigation into incident into Beghazi by breaking into her computer, listening in on her phone calls, and interfering with her cable service. In her book Attkisson  calls the surveillance, "Worse than anything Nixon ever did."

Following questions raised about the cell phone video -- with computer security experts saying the disappearing lines of copy appeared to be a stuck backspace key and not the result of being hacked by government agents -- Attkisson sat down with Hayes to discuss her allegations.

Asked about the video, Attkisson described it as "a visual anecdote."

"That I would call a visual anecdote of something that happened some months after the three computer forensics examines confirmed these highly sophisticated remote intrusions," Attkisson explained. "Hacking is one way to call it, I guess... but I consider it as a non-technical person, a long-term monitoring and surveillance based on the dates that the computer forensics showed that it was going on."

Asked by Hayes if she felt it was an "instance of some remote surveillance," Attkisson said it showed what was happening to her when she was working at home, and disputed the 'stuck backspace key' theory saying there is no such key on her computer.

"In fact that day in particular, in which the access of my computer I couldn't control it for a period of time, and although some people have kind of mistakenly, without the forensics of course and the context, analyzed it, what really happened If you look in the first couple of seconds, pages were wiping in a matter of a couple seconds. It wasn't sort of the backspace key, which doesn't exist, or a delete key on the computer being held down," she said.

In interviews Attkisson has repeatedly referenced a team of forensics experts who examined her computer and confirmed to her that she was the subject of a remote intrusions.

Seeking to verify her claims, Eric Wemple of the Washington Post sought a comment from one of the firms Attkisson used, KoreLogic based in Annapolis,  however the company refused to comment citing a confidentiality agreement.

Watch the video below from All In: