Marco Rubio reveals his presidential campaign staffers were hacked

Former White House hopeful's revelation further complicates web of intrigue around Russia's rumoured involvement in fixing last November's election

Florida Senator Marco Rubio (AP)

Senator Marco Rubio (Republican-Florida) just revealed that hackers targeted his presidential campaign staffers in July, just as he was announcing his bid for reelection to the Senate — and yesterday, too.

“In the first panel, one of the individuals who appeared before us mentioned me in connection with efforts in the 2016 presidential primary,” Rubio said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election on Thursday.

“In July of 2016, shortly after I announced that I would seek reelection to the United States Senate, former members of my presidential campaign team, who had access to the internal information of my presidential campaign, were targeted by IP addresses with an unknown location within Russia. That effort was unsuccessful.”

And that wasn't all.

“I'd also inform the committee,” the Intelligence Committee member went on, “that within the last 24 hours, at 10:45am yesterday, a second attempt was made, again against former members of my presidential campaign team, who had access to our internal information, again targeted from an IP address from an unknown location in Russia, and that effort was also unsuccessful.”

It's the first public confirmation we've gotten that suspected Russian hackers targeted anyone beyond the Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns, and it comes smack-dab in the middle of two separate investigations into Russian hacking — including one that Rubio is participating in, in his role as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Rubio wouldn't go into detail, saying he'd reveal more if and when the committee releases a report.

But it's clear that the Russia story is continuing to grow — and that the longer the House and Senate investigations go on, the more we'll learn about it.

The Washington Post