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 Marcel Lehel, 44, is charged in a nine-count indictment that
includes three counts of gaining unauthorized access to protected
computers, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.
According to the indictment, Lehel "hacked into the email and social
media accounts of high-profile victims, including a family member of
two former U.S. presidents, a former U.S. Cabinet member, a former
member of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former presidential
advisor," the statement said.
It did not name the victims, but in 2013 news websites published
hacked emails sent to Clinton by her former adviser Sidney
Blumenthal, offering the first public clues about Clinton’s
unconventional email arrangements and attributing the hack to
Guccifer.
 Clinton, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic 2016
presidential nomination, has apologized for using a private email
server for official business while secretary of state from 2009 to
2013. The FBI is conducting an inquiry into the arrangement.
Guccifer shot to fame in 2013 after he claimed responsibility for
hacking into George W. Bush's family emails and posted artwork by
the former U.S. president, including self-portraits in the bathtub.
He also distributed emails exchanged by former U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell and Corina Cretu, a Romanian member of the
European Parliament, prompting Powell to deny the two had had an
affair. Lehel, a cab driver by trade, was arrested in Bucharest in
January 2014. He was serving a combined seven-year sentence in
Romania, including a four-year term handed down in 2014 for
illegally accessing email accounts of public figures.
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Last month, a source with Romania's DIICOT anti-organized crime and
terrorism unit told Reuters that the country's top court had
"approved an 18-month temporary extradition to America for the
hacker."
According to the U.S. indictment, Lehel "publicly released his
victims’ private email correspondence, medical and financial
information and personal photographs," the Justice Department
statement said.
Lehel appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. The other
charges in the indictment are three counts of wire fraud, and one
count each of aggravated identity theft, cyberstalking and
obstruction of justice, it said. The statement did not say what
punishment the charges carried.
(Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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