The Democratic ex-staffer who doxxed several Republican senators after disapproving of their handling of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation will be going to jail for four years.
Jackson Cosko, a 27-year-old former staffer for Sen. Maggie Hassan (D., N.H.), was arrested last October for leaking the phone numbers and home addresses of Republican senators Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), and Mike Lee (Utah). The information was briefly posted on the senators' Wikipedia pages before being taken down.
Cosko was working for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas) at the time of his arrest, and was immediately fired.
After the media began covering the doxxing, Cosko also posted the information of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.).
Cosko had also previously interned for Hassan before being fired last year, Politico reported. In April of this year, he pleaded guilty to five felonies and confessed to using a colleague's key to enter the office and downloading a large number of Senate files. He did so over a period of several months and said he initially planned to use the data to harass his former colleagues. He decided to dox the Republican senators because he was angry about the Republican senators' handling of sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, the then-nominee for the Supreme Court.
He was sentenced to four years in jail for his actions. The district court judge, Thomas Hogan, described Cosko's actions as "a rather vicious offense." Cosko took responsibility for his actions, and said he had been struggling with mental health issues at the time, according to Politico's report.
Another former staffer, Samantha DeForest Davis, was also charged in the plot. She is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanors, the Hill reported.
The Senate eventually confirmed Judge Kavanaugh with a vote of 50 to 48.