Justice Department Claims it Had No Idea It Hacked Sharyl Attkisson’s Computers

Sharyl Attkisson has long been bringing attention to the hypocrisy, lies, and scandals of President Obama’s administration. She’s done such a good job, it appears, that they hacked her computers to keep track of her investigations.

It all started with “Fast and Furious.”

After winning an Emmy for breaking the scandal and subsequent reporting on the gunrunning scheme, some powerful people in the government didn’t like it. Soon, an inside source told her that her personal and work computers had probably been hacked.

Three computer experts confirmed the alarming tip:

The intruders installed and periodically “refreshed” software used to exfiltrate data, obtain Attkisson’s passwords to various personal and work accounts, access the CBS News computer system, and monitor Attkisson’s audio using a Skype account.

As she kept reporting on stories like the Benghazi attack and the Obamacare rollout, she noticed strange behavior with her devices – computers turning on in the middle of the night, the house alarm being triggered by “phone line trouble,” and files being deleted before her very eyes. Unsurprisingly, even for “the most transparent administration ever,” Attkisson’s initial efforts to get answers were not successful.

Fed up with her stories being stonewalled, she left CBS and blew the whistle about the White House’s efforts to control the media in her best selling book Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington. This year, she’s mounted two legal challenges: one is an administrative claim for illegally hacking her computers and personal devices; the second is a formal lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court for constitutional violations. (These are in addition to several FOIA lawsuits pending against the DOJ and FBI.)

The claim and suit will be filed against Attorney General Eric Holder, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, and more federal agents who were involved as they are revealed in discovery.

The Department of Justice’s response is laughable (emphasis added):

To our knowledge, the Justice Department has never compromised Ms. Attkisson’s computers, or otherwise sought any information from or concerning any telephone, computer, or other media device she may own or use.

This suspiciously like Obama’s claim that he didn’t know about the IRS targeting of pro-Israel, Tea Party, and conservative groups until Lois Lerner brought it up in a press conference.

And just in case you still have confidence in any branch of the government, the U.S. Postal Service was also implicated in Attkisson’s complaint. A computer forensics expert found “an unauthorized communications channel opened into her Toshiba laptop directly connected to an Internet Provider (IP) address belonging to a federal agency… indicating unauthorized surveillance.” That federal agency was the postal service, which often cooperates with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and DOJ in computer investigations.

(Though the USPS said, “we do not believe the allegations reported in the media have any merit.”)

In a press release, Attkisson stated:

The personal rights secured by our Constitution have a long and accepted history. At the very core of those rights is the right to be free in our own homes from unreasonable governmental intrusion. Although I would have much preferred to have resolved this efficiently with dialogue and disclosure, until the government is open, honest, and fully truthful with my family about what transpired, we have chosen to use the only means available to us as citizens to try and force full disclosure and honest answers to the many questions that have been raised during the investigation conducted to date.

She later told Breitbart, “Our goal is public awareness, getting some answers, getting at the truth and making it a little harder for this to happen to somebody else in the future.”

It’s inspiring to see a citizen who just won’t put up with being bullied by her own government – a government that is supposed to be accountable to the people, not the other way around.