Patterico's Pontifications

9/25/2012

Politically Motivated Burglary? UPDATE: Apparently Not

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:20 am



That’s what this sounds like:

[Yesterday] morning in New York, staff arrived at Republican Rep. Michael Grimm’s re-election campaign headquarters to find windows shattered by rocks and pieces of cement.

Grimm released a statement that the burglary “is a disgraceful act of cowardice that is beneath the people I represent,” adding that he had “never saw anything as dirty or disgraceful as this.”

There are no known suspects, according to police. However, a press release states that police do believe that the broken windows is a “cover-up for the burglary in which the suspect corrupted and erased the hard-drive of the campaign computer server, which contains confidential campaign files and polling data.”

Thanks to JD.

UPDATE: False alarm. The vandal was an eighth grader and apparently no computer data was affected. Why Grimm said it was, I have no idea. Thanks to jim2.

21 Responses to “Politically Motivated Burglary? UPDATE: Apparently Not”

  1. This is the New York Daily News article:

    State pols aflutter over Grimmgate Mystery deepens over skulduggery at S.I. rep’s office Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/state-pols-aflutter-grimmgate-article-1.1167573#ixzz27UhKHkri

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 9/25/2012 @ 8:03 am

  2. How strange. What would be the point of erasing POLLING data?

    FWIW, always change the locks.
    Back up your hard-drives in a cloud and in hardcopy
    Buy a cheap security cam or two.

    SarahW (b0e533) — 9/25/2012 @ 8:49 am

  3. Would simply urge you keep an open mind. Very odd detail;there are no signs of forced entry and the holes made in the windows are not large enough for a person to enter through, so who ever got into the premises probably had to use a key.

    Grimm got elected in 2010 by presenting himself as a Tea Party adherent, and there is a substantial TP in Staten Island. But once he got to DC he became a reliable hack for the GOP establishment.Grimm has also had issues with the previous GOP Congresspeople who’ve held the seat; Guy and Susan Molinari(Guy’s daughter) and Vito “2 families” Fossella. Grimm has had what could politely be called an unusual career prior to his Congressional run, and a wacky personal life to boot. Further even as per the article Grimm’s campaign records are backed up remotely.

    This could be a cause of vandalism or theft. Or something else. I would wait and see before assuming there is some grand Dem conspiracy.

    Bugg (234f77) — 9/25/2012 @ 8:50 am

  4. We shouldn’t discount the fact that someone may have been upset after watching a trailer for a forthcoming movie on YouTube.
    I’ve heard it can potentially cause people to become violent and break stuff. Commit murder, even.

    Elephant Stone (65d289) — 9/25/2012 @ 9:03 am

  5. What crazy people have fixated on Grimm?

    JD (318f81) — 9/25/2012 @ 9:12 am

  6. “Grimmgate”
    Seriously, can we not lay the “-gate” suffix to rest? It’s been FORTY YEARS fer chrissakes!

    Icy (145c49) — 9/25/2012 @ 9:15 am

  7. JD – Hard not to think of Le Crazievils first. But what on earth could they have hoped to accomplish?

    SarahW (b0e533) — 9/25/2012 @ 9:30 am

  8. Since convolution is not out of the question, I guess they might have tried to concoct some lame way to accuse him of obstruction. Or perhaps they attempted to erase evidence of their own tamperings.

    SarahW (b0e533) — 9/25/2012 @ 9:32 am

  9. Tawana Brawley.

    P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 9/25/2012 @ 10:29 am

  10. Fake claims of rape and racism are punchlines to Tillman

    JD (318f81) — 9/25/2012 @ 10:44 am

  11. Further even as per the article Grimm’s campaign records are backed up remotely.

    Perhaps erasing the drive was meant to conceal what was accessed, as Sarah suggests.

    Perhaps there was something on a drive that wasn’t backed up remotely for some reason.

    Of course, I think your hesitance to jump to conclusions is justified.

    Dustin (73fead) — 9/25/2012 @ 10:49 am

  12. Has it come to the point in the American Experiment that a candidate’s campaign office needs security simulating a CIA/NSA facility?

    There is something seriously wrong in America, and more Hope & Change is not the answer.

    AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 9/25/2012 @ 11:07 am

  13. this is what I’ve been waiting for thank you for the article

    Online movie for free (2da020) — 9/25/2012 @ 11:38 am

  14. Changed locks and a cam or two is pretty standard though, I hope the CIA is more secure than that.

    SarahW (b0e533) — 9/25/2012 @ 11:47 am

  15. Changed locks and a cheap security cam is not sufficient in today’s atmosphere.
    An ex-bank storefront would be a good starting point, especially if the vault-door is still intact, and the windows had been replaced with Lexan.

    AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 9/25/2012 @ 12:01 pm

  16. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/258599-eight-grader-admits-to-vandalizing-rep-grimm-campaign-office

    jim2 (6482d8) — 9/25/2012 @ 12:05 pm

  17. jim2, I would find out what his teachers have been telling him.

    AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 9/25/2012 @ 1:35 pm

  18. UPDATE: False alarm. The vandal was an eighth grader and apparently no computer data was affected. Why Grimm said it was, I have no idea. Thanks to jim2.

    Becuase Grimm is a politician? With, needless to say, Grimm has the ethics of a crawly worm?

    nk (875f57) — 9/25/2012 @ 4:34 pm

  19. Here’s an LA Times follow-up:
    http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-michael-grimm-vandalism-20120925,0,4629038.story

    Morgan Little writes “

    His campaign first reported that computer systems full of “confidential” data pertaining to his reelection efforts had been completely wiped out after Linux had been installed onto the hard drives. But an anonymous law enforcement official told the New York Times Monday that there had been no discovered evidence of intrusion, let alone a hacker with a preference for Linux.

    ”

    and

    “Grimm said that while the campaign has yet to hear the NYPD’s conclusion, it was ‘possible that a volunteer could have inadvertently compromised the computer and failed to report it.'”

    SarahW (b0e533) — 9/26/2012 @ 6:40 am

  20. “The vandal was an eighth grader and apparently no computer data was affected. Why Grimm said it was, I have no idea.”

    …trying to replicate Rathergate maybe??

    Naaah.. Republicans would NEVER do that!

    P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 9/26/2012 @ 8:34 am

  21. Des•per•ate Haus•frau ^^^

    Icy (735d7a) — 9/26/2012 @ 9:11 pm


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