Russian hacker tells court FSB him ordered to hack Clinton's emails

Times:

A Russian hacker has told a court in Moscow that he was ordered by Kremlin spymasters to steal emails linked to Hillary Clinton.

Konstantin Kozlovsky is on trial accused of being part of Lurk, a group accused of stealing 3 billion roubles (£38 million) from banks by infecting computer systems with malware.

A transcript of a hearing in his trial which was posted on his Facebook page records Mr Kozlovsky, 29, saying: “I fulfilled various tasks under the direction of employees of the FSB [the secret service] in particular the hacking of the US Democratic National Committee [DNC] and the electronic messages of Hillary Clinton, as well as breaking in to very serious US military enterprises.”

Almost 20,000 emails were stolen from the DNC and published by Wikileaks in July last year. The messages suggested that the committee had tried to undermine the campaign of Bernie Sanders, Mrs Clinton’s rival to run as Democratic candidate in the US presidential election. Wikileaks later published another batch of emails said to be from the account of John Podesta, Mrs Clinton’s campaign manager.

US intelligence officials concluded that Russia was behind the hacking. If Mr Kozlovsky’s claim is true, it would be the first confession by a Russian linked to the security services of attempting to interfere in the US election.
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Kozlovsky has not been able to provide any proof of his claims.  The malware attacks on banks appear to have been pretty lucrative.  Some are suggesting that the claim is based on some element of revenge.  I suspect the Mueller team may find the claim interesting.