WikiLeaks had published around 20,000 emails in 2016 from top authorities from the Democratic National Committee. The emails exchanged between January 2015 and May 2016, revealed that the DNC figures were agitated with Bernie Sanders and his presidential campaign, despite protocol requiring them to be neutral in the primary contest.
The emails allegedly revealed a bias in the DNC, the body nominating the party's presidential candidate, towards Hilary Clinton. Clinton's manager Robby Mook rebuffed the claims and had said in 2016 on ABC News that he believed the Russians were involved in the incident.
"Experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, took all these emails and now are leaking them out through these websites," Mook said. "It's also problematic that some experts are now telling us that this was done by Russians with the intention of helping Donald Trump."
The first leak, which took place a week before the Democratic National Convention, led to a severe fallout in the DNC. A day before the convention was scheduled to begin, DNC chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned. And supporters of Bernie Sanders were furious about the contents of the emails. However, the Convention still went ahead and Hilary Clinton was nominated as the party's presidential candidate against Donald Trump.
What Were In Those Emails
The emails appeared on the Wikileaks database in two phases – first on July 22 and then on November 6, 2016. They contained information about the committee's media activities before the convention, how the committee members looked at the campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton, and detailed information about the financial contributions received. Despite being eye-opening in many ways, it contained sensitive personal information of the donors, such as credit card and Social Security numbers.
Although the emails had some evidence to prove that the DNC was biased against Sanders, no proof existed that they used the main resources of the Democratic Party against the Vermont Senator.
Another important revelation in the emails was the DNC's then-financial officer Brad Marshall's comments, allegedly about Sanders. In one of the emails, Marshall said, "for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage." The email did not specify who the person was, but it seemed that Sanders was the target, Vox said. Marshall denied that Sanders was being targeted and said that there was no such proof that the plan was carried out.