Trump ‘arranged in advance’ to have the DNC hacked: GOP strategist

Longtime Republican media strategist Cheri Jacobus speculated on Tuesday that President Donald Trump did more than just know about the Wikileaks hacking of the Democratic National Committee computer systems during the 2016 presidential cycle.

Jacobus gave a fascinating account of having her email hacked after confirming a Trump lie about his backing by a super PAC.

"It's clear to me that the Trump team had the ability to have my email hacked. It's clear to me that they then tried to launder information from my hacked emails through other sources so that they could use it against me," Jacobus explained. "Importantly, it's clear that if this is what Trump and his team of thugs could do to me -- have me hacked, launder the info, and then try to use it against me without having their paw prints on it - they certainly are capable of doing it to Hillary, the DNC and others."

"I believe that not only did Trump know WikiLeaks had the hacked emails of his political 'enemies', but that it's likely Trump and his associates arranged in advance to have the emails hacked, or at the very least were involved in the planning and coordination of the hackings -- just as in the hacking of my email," she explained.

Jacobus also believes she was victim of a "catfishing" scheme and notes she was fearful for her safety, even calling her local NYPD precinct.

"The FBI launched an investigation. (Preet Bahara's office had already been dealing with the catfishing case, and then helped get the FBI involved.) Over the course of the next year, two more data points occurred that indicated people associated with Trump were in possession of personal information about me that seemed to have been garnered from my hacked email," she explained.

"In one instance, they were trying to confirm something through another avenue that they thought would help Trump in court, but knew they could not bring up on their own, thus exposing themselves as having access to my hacked emails," she continued. "In another instance, a member of the Trump team who had appeared before the grand jury and Congress appeared to be trafficking in information he erroneously thought was damning, but obviously came from my hacked email."

The case was eventually turned over to special counsel Robert Mueller, Jacobus believes.

"As these new developments took place, the FBI (SDNY) increased their contact with me, and then said they needed to meet with me. While I had a good idea what they had found based on their 3 1/2 hour meeting with me, I was not made privy to it at that time, nor in the subsequent contact with them," she added. "Last fall they informed me that this had gone beyond their initial investigation of mere computer intrusion (this particular division dealt with cyber crimes) and they were passing the information to the Special Counsel's office."

Read the full account.