The Romanian hacker who pled guilty to stealing emails and files from top U.S. officials — including both former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and an associate of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which outed her use of a private email server while secretary of state — was sentenced Sept. 1 to 52 months in prison.
Marcel Lehel Lazar, 44, of Arad, Romania, who goes by the handle “Guccifer,” pled guilty in May to unauthorized access to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft. He was extradited to the U.S. in March.
From December 2012 through January 2014, Lazar allegedly hacked into the private email accounts of former general and diplomat Colin Powell, a member of the Bush family — releasing private photos of former President George H.W. Bush and self-portraits painted by former President George W. Bush — and Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal.
“Marcel Lazar is the latest of a dozen high-level cybercriminals who have recently been extradited to face justice in the United States,” Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said after Lazar appeared in court on April 1. “Old-fashioned investigative work, enhanced international law enforcement relationships and a long memory can ensure that foreign-based hackers have no safe haven even in the remote corners of the globe. As the saying goes, ‘They can run, but they can’t hide.’ ” Lazar told The Smoking Gun— the news outlet to which he first released the Clinton emails — that he did not fight the extradition request. His trip to the U.S. comes in the middle of serving a seven-year sentence handed down by Romanian authorities.
