A Republican operative who reportedly tried to obtain Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails from Russia killed himself inside a hotel room in May, just days after speaking with a Wall Street Journal reporter about his efforts during the 2016 election.
Public records unearthed by the Chicago Tribune show that Peter W. Smith, 81, left a suicide note and was found with a bag over his head and a helium source on May 14, just 10 days after he gave an interview to the WSJ.
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Harris, a former Daily Beast reporter, wrote in his initial story that U.S. intelligence officials believed the Russians discussed how to send Clinton’s emails to Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, through an “intermediary.”
Smith was a key source in one of the WSJ’s biggest scoops of the Trump presidency, which showed that in his quest for Clinton’s 30,000 deleted emails, he reached out to multiple hacker groups, including at least two that he believed had ties to the Russian government.
Although he did not work for the Trump campaign, Smith dropped Flynn’s name when contacting the hacker groups, claiming that he was in contact with the future national security advisor about his hunt for the emails.
“He said, ‘I’m talking to Michael Flynn about this—if you find anything, can you let me know?’” Eric York, a computer-security expert who hunted hacker forums for potential leads on the emails, told the WSJ.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-operat ... ed-himself
14 Jul 2017, 1:57 am
