# DCLeaks A website that presented itself in 2016 as a project of "American hacktivists" and was in fact run by Russian military intelligence, the [[GRU]]. It was one of two fake personas — the other was [[Guccifer 2.0]] — that the GRU used to publish documents stolen from Democrats and others before handing the biggest trove to [[WikiLeaks]]. The July 2018 indictment of twelve GRU officers names the units, the officers and the timestamps behind it, which makes DCLeaks the documentary floor under the statement "Russia hacked the Democrats." ## Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | Apr 19, 2016 | Conspirators try to register electionleaks.com, then register dcleaks.com | | June 8, 2016 | Site goes live, with a Facebook page and a @dcleaks_ Twitter account created the same day | | June 15, 2016 | The GRU creates the Guccifer 2.0 "lone Romanian hacker" persona, the day after CrowdStrike publicly attributed the DNC breach to Russia | | July 1, 2016 | Publishes emails of Gen. Philip Breedlove, former NATO commander | | Aug 2016 | Publishes material from Republican targets, including John McCain's campaign staff, phone numbers of more than 200 Democratic lawmakers, and a large set of Open Society Foundations files | | Sept 2016 | Colin Powell's hacked emails appear — the ones calling Trump a "national disgrace" | | July 13, 2018 | [[Robert Mueller]]'s office indicts 12 GRU officers (*United States v. Netyksho*) | ## Who ran it The indictment assigns the hacking itself to **Unit 26165** (commander Viktor Netyksho and eight officers) and the publication to **Unit 74455**, which "assisted in the release of stolen documents through the DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 personas, the promotion of those releases, and the publication of anti-Clinton content." A Unit 74455 officer is also charged with stealing data on about 500,000 voters from a state election board website. None of the twelve has been arrested. See [[Russian State Hacking Groups]] for the units' commercial names (Fancy Bear, Sandworm). ## Why it matters here DCLeaks is the hard evidence that the right's later counter-narratives have to get around. The [[CrowdStrike Conspiracy Theory]] — that Ukraine, not Russia, did the hacking — only works if this indictment is ignored. The later "Russia hoax" revisionism of 2025–26 (see [[Grand Conspiracy Probe]]) concerns how U.S. officials assessed Russia's *intent*; it does not touch the forensic record of who stole and published the files. > [!warning] A common mix-up > [[John Podesta]]'s emails were published by **WikiLeaks**, starting October 7, 2016, not by DCLeaks. Some summaries lump them together. ## See Also - [[Guccifer 2.0]] · [[WikiLeaks]] — the other publication channels - [[GRU]] · [[Russian State Hacking Groups]] · [[Hack-and-Leak Operation]] - [[DNC Hack]] · [[Mueller Investigation]] · [[Trump-Russia Arc Timeline]] - [[CrowdStrike Conspiracy Theory]]