WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) — Several politicians, including one U.S. senator, have denied reports they’re affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan in response to leaked data from a questionable source.
The high-profile names were linked to the white supremacist group Monday in a social media post coinciding with, but separate from, a similar release of data by the Anonymous hacking group. Last week, Anonymous said it intended to release the names, emails and phone numbers of members of the KKK, a process that began Sunday and Monday on text-sharing website Pastebin.
On Monday, a user identified as Amped Attacks posted his own list of KKK members or “racist related” politicians on Pastebin, including multiple members of Congress and several mayors across the United States.
Amped Attacks told Tech Crunch he hacked into KKK databases, as well as theWestboro Baptist Church‘s website, taking the site offline.
“I am not involved with Anonymous or any other hacktivist group. I am my own man that acts on my own accord and the take-down of WBC is just something i felt like doing cause frankly I am tired of them spewing their hate message,” he said.
“I worked for nine days to gather and verify all the information that was gathered before its release. I got the information from several KKK websites when I [hacked] them and was able to dump their database. I went through many emails that was signed up with these sites and a few of the emails that sparked my interest was the ones of the politicians in question. There would be no reason for them to be signed up on any KKK website unless they supported it or was involved in it,” he added.
Some of the politicians included in Amped Attacks’ have since issued statements denying their involvement in the hate group.
One senator on Twitter Monday called the accusation “baseless Internet garbage of the worst kind.”
Four senators were included in the Amped Attacks leak, though as of Tuesday only one had addressed the controversy. Several mayors from Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Florida and Indiana have also denied the allegations, Al.com reported.
“This allegation from the group Anonymous is false, insulting and ridiculous. I have never had any relationship of any kind with the KKK,” one mayor said. “I am opposed to everything the KKK stands for. I have no idea where this information came from, but wherever it came from, it is wrong.”
Anonymous posted, then deleted a tweet Monday distancing itself from the Amped Attacks list, Huffington Post reported.
“We wont release names w/out due diligence,” the tweet read. “We discourage the circulation of disinfo & will not promote an unverifiable list of politicians.”
