Investigative journalist, Sharyl Attkisson was one of the many people targeted by the Obama administration for surveillance.
Her personal computer and CBS laptop were hacked after she began filing stories about Benghazi that were unflattering to the Obama administration. Attkisson wrote a New York Times bestseller documenting this called ‘Stonewalled’.
Today, Attkisson took to her Twitter account asking why the FBI is withholding her entire file with no explanation.
Why withhold my entire @FBI file with no explanation (as required by law)? What on earth is in there?
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) April 17, 2017
Where’s my @FBI file and why withhold it?
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) April 17, 2017
Attkisson also posted her Obama-era surveillance timeline citing:
I couldn’t find any comprehensive timelines cross-referencing Obama-era surveillance of whistleblowers, journalists and other U.S. citizens with Russia surveillance allegations. So I built one. Please note: temporal proximity of events doesn’t necessarily imply a connection.
In this timeline, Attkisson reveals when she began to be targeted by the Obama admin and how it progressed…
October 2012:
CBS begins airing Attkisson’s Benghazi stories which rely on whistleblowers and numerous government-linked confidential sources. These sources report that the Executive Branch is clamping down on leaks to reporters re: Benghazi.
DOJ continues its stepped-up National Security Division cyber efforts, holding specialized training at DOJ headquarters for the National Security Cyber Specialists (NSCS) network and the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS).
November 13, 2012:
The F.B.I. initiates a body of cyber security case investigations that would later relate to Attkisson’s computer intrusions.
December 2012:
Two intelligence-connected sources separately suggest to Attkisson that she’s likely under government surveillance due to her reporting. One source tells her the government has pushed the envelope like never before and that public would be shocked to “learn the extent that the government is conducting surveillance of private citizens.”
As Attkisson arranges a forensic exam of her computer, evidence later shows the intruders then attempted to cover their tracks and to erase evidence of their intrusion. However, the erasures leave additional forensic evidence.
January 2013:
Two forensics examinations confirm unauthorized remote intrusions and monitoring of Attkisson’s work and personal computers. The information is not publicly reported at this time.
June 2013:
The FBI secretly opens a case on Attkisson’s computer intrusions under the auspices of a national security issue. The FBI contacts CBS without Attkisson’s knowledge, but fails to contact or interview Attkisson. (The FBI later withholds Attkisson’s FBI file in its entirety without explanation, and other documents, despite multiple Freedom of Information Act requests.)
News of the FBI case involving Attkisson’s computer intrusions is circulated internally to the Justice Department’s national cyber security group, and grouped with a set of cases opened in November 2012.
Read the rest of the timeline outlined by Sharyl Attkisson here.