While last week’s drama surrounding allegations against Brett Kavanaugh played out before a national audience, another drama unfolded on Wikipedia.
Someone – in the House of Representatives – published the private phone numbers and home addresses of Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee for the world to see. (RedState)
Personal information of Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, and Orrin Hatch were posted by an unknown person located in the House of Representatives on Thursday during the hearing of Supreme Court Nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
The information, which supposedly included home addresses and phone numbers, was posted – or doxxed – on the senators’ respective Wikipedia pages, where users are allowed to update the information at any time. The information has since been removed.
BREAKING: Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, Orrin Hatch, and Mike Lee were targeted and doxxed with their home/office addresses and home/cell phones being published online on Wikipedia through an anonymous IP address associated with the House of Representatives. pic.twitter.com/G1GgCReA7E
— Mike Tokes (@MikeTokes) September 27, 2018
UPDATE: Wikipedia has reverted the pages of the Republican Senators and the previous edits publishing their personal information appear to be removed from the public archive.
The two vandal IP’s, belonging to the US House of Reps. have engaged in Doxxing + Vandalism previously. pic.twitter.com/hHn7Th0OkA
— Mike Tokes (@MikeTokes) September 27, 2018
UPDATE: When searching for activity associated with the House of Representatives IP’s used in the doxxing of Republican Senators, we find a posted comment from August 22, 2018 registered to Kathleen Sengstock, the Senior Legislative Assistant for Representative MAXINE WATERS. pic.twitter.com/6nRseFRt3W
— Mike Tokes (@MikeTokes) September 29, 2018
UPDATE: I have reached out to Kathleen Sengstock, the Maxine Waters staffer who is associated with the House of Representatives IP address used to dox the Republican Senators.
She was very nervous. She said she is not authorized to comment & said to call Maxine Waters PR office. pic.twitter.com/rWqM2kgpf8
— Mike Tokes (@MikeTokes) September 29, 2018
Does this mean that Waters’s staff tried to expose sensitive personal information about three Republican Senators? I am not conversant with how the IT system in the House of Representatives is configured. I know that the IP range 143.231.249.0 – 143.231.249.255 is assigned to the House of Representatives. People who claim to be experts say that the odds that this woman did it are low but the common IP address indicates it is in a block of IP addresses assigned to Waters’s office.
Waters, of course, denies it. But the denial so histrionic that it reeks guilt. No one but a guilty person gets upset when they are falsely accused, amirite?
Please read my statement on false allegations regarding the leak of the personal information of U.S. Senators: pic.twitter.com/YBEekR6jBB
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) September 29, 2018
Tellingly, Waters provided no evidence to back up her unhinged statement.