FBI investigating hacking of House GOP campaign arm
The FBI is investigating a cyber attack on the campaign arm of congressional Republicans during the 2018 election cycle, a spokesman confirmed to CBS News' Rebecca Kaplan.
The National Republican Congressional Committee was a "victim of a cyber intrusion by an unknown entity," NRCC spokesman Ian Prior said.
"The cybersecurity of the Committee's data is paramount, and upon learning of the intrusion, the NRCC immediately launched an internal investigation and notified the FBI, which is now investigating the matter," Prior said.
Politico first reported the hack, saying four senior aides were surveilled for several months. Politico also reported top Republicans, including speaking of the House Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, learned of the hack from Politico's inquiries.
President Trump has bashed Democrats when they were hacked during the 2016 presidential campaign, claiming the Democratic National Committee was "poorly defended."
"Only reason the hacking of the poorly defended DNC is discussed is that the loss by the Dems was so big that they are totally embarrassed!" Mr. Trump tweeted in January 2017.
He also accused the Democrats of being weak for getting hacked in a July 2018 interview with CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor.
"I think the DNC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked," Mr. Trump said. "They had bad defenses and they were able to be hacked."
House Republicans lost nearly 40 seats in this year's midterms.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
