A US State Department whistleblower whose personal email files contained allegations of abuse and wrongdoing has had his account hacked. Four years of potential evidence has been deleted, his lawyer announced.<\/p>\n
A computer attack of unknown origin appears to have targeted Richard Higbie, a criminal investigator with the Diplomatic Security Service who earlier this year accused the State Department of blocking his career advancement.<\/p>\n
Cary Schulman, Higbie\u2019s lawyer, told the New York Post that Higbie\u2019s Gmail account included correspondence with other whistleblowers about top officials within the State Department and members of Congress who are investigating the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took all of his emails and then they deleted them all<\/em>,\u201d Schulman said. \u201cObviously somebody is not happy with something he\u2019s doing and wanted to get that information and also cause him an inability in the future to have ready access to that<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawyer said that the hack was \u201csophisticated<\/em>\u201d and \u201calarming<\/em>,\u201d adding that the messages also contained notes between he and Higbie on their legal strategy.<\/p>\n Higbie is one of the State Department officials who reportedly informed the agency\u2019s inspector general about a variety of wrongdoings earlier this year. The inspector general\u2019s annual report, of which Higbie was as a source, chronicled reports of officials soliciting sex from foreign prostitutes in a public park (some of whom were underage), an \u201cunderground drug ring<\/em>\u201d that funneled illegal substances to security teams in Iraq, and at least one instance of an official over-charging the State Department for the number of hours he worked.<\/p>\n Higbie worked closely with fellow whistleblower Aurelia Fedenisn, although the two now maintain that they were instructed to stop investigating because of how embarrassing the revelations would be, and how many careers would be at risk.<\/p>\n