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Rep. Maxine Waters Denies Her Office Doxed Republicans

Three GOP senators on Judiciary Committee had addresses and phone numbers posted to Wikipedia

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., denied over the weekend that a member of her staff amended Wikipedia entries to show home addresses and personal phone numbers of Republican senators. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., denied over the weekend that a member of her staff amended Wikipedia entries to show home addresses and personal phone numbers of Republican senators. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Rep. Maxine Waters denied this weekend that an aide in her office posted personal information, including home addresses, to Wikipedia of three Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee as that panel questioned Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and a woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were both teenagers in 1982.

“Lies, lies, and more despicable lies. I am utterly disgusted by the spread of the completely false, absurd, and dangerous lies and conspiracy theories that are being peddled by ultra-right wing pundits, outlets, and websites,” the California Democrat said in a statement.

Someone posted addresses and phone numbers to the personal Wikipedia pages of Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mike Lee and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah on Thursday as they questioned Kavanaugh and his accuser, California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford.

Those edits to their pages triggered Wikipedia edit “bots” on Twitter to tweet out the information.

Wikipedia editors quickly scrubbed the pages of the personal information when aides contacted the online encyclopedia website, lawmakers’ offices said.

The U.S. Capitol Police and the House IT specialist “have determined that the IP address in question does not belong to my office or anyone on my staff,” Waters said in her statement.

But the damage of the accusation that Waters’ staffer was responsible for the original doxing has already been done, she said.

“The member of my staff — whose identity, personal information, and safety have been compromised as a result of these fraudulent and false allegations — was in no way responsible for the leak of this information,” Waters said.

Sen. Rand Paul brought the issue to the forefront on Friday when he tweeted about the Wikipedia page edits.

“This should be investigated [and] the perpetrators punished,” the Kentucky Republican tweeted of the incident. “There is too much hatred and violence in politics these days.”

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