A former congressional staff member pleaded guilty to posting private information about Republican senators on the website Wikipedia and threatening a witness who caught him on a computer in another lawmaker’s office, the Washington Post reports. Jackson Cosko, 27, admitted to “doxing” the senators after he became angry about being fired by one senator and grew angry at other senators as he watched the hearing on sexual assault allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Cosko pleaded guilty to two counts of making public restricted personal information and one count each of computer fraud, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
Cosko was arrested Oct. 3 by U.S. Capitol Police, who said he was caught sneaking into the offices of Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and using an aide’s computer and log-in. Cosko, angry that he was fired from Hassan’s office in May, had “engaged in an extraordinarily extensive data theft scheme” by burglarizing the office several times, copying network drives and identifying sensitive information he might use later, he admitted. On Sept. 27, Cosko “became angry” while watching Kavanaugh’s televised testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and subsequently doxed five senators by anonymously editing their Wikipedia pages to add phone numbers and home addresses, he admitted.