Website hacking claims are at center of NC Republican Party feud

Much of the debate over Hasan Harnett’s future as chairman of the N.C. Republican Party centers on allegations that he ordered a “brute force attack” on the party’s website to lower its convention fee.

After a dispute about the price of admission to the June state convention, the party’s Central Committee took a vote of “no confidence” in Harnett last month, cut him off from party email and banned him from the NCGOP’s Raleigh headquarters.

Some party leaders want to oust Harnett, who’s aligned with the Tea Party grassroots wing of his party and wasn’t endorsed by most Republican elected officials. The Central Committee doesn’t have the power to remove him, so some leaders are working on a petition to bring the 600-member Executive Committee together to discuss it.

Meanwhile, the party’s attorney has released a four-page affidavit from Ken Robol, a web development instructor at Pitt Community College in Greenville who says Harnett told him he wanted to hack the NCGOP website.

But supporters of Harnett say Robol was acting of behalf of GOP leaders in an effort to gather incriminating evidence against the chairman.

Both sides have sent extensive documentation of the incident to the media, including screenshots of text messages. As a result, the party’s dirty laundry has become national news in the middle of an election year; a Washington Post story last week carried the headline “North Carolina’s Republican Party has declared war on itself.”

Robol is an unusual figure in the conflict because he’s not in party leadership – his only official role is as webmaster for several community GOP groups. He contacted Harnett after Harnett’s email access was shut off over what party executive director Dallas Woodhouse called a “security issue.”

“Mr. Chairman, I can help you to hack your website to get into the site,” Robol said in a text message that Harnett later posted online.

In the posted texts, Harnett replies, “Let’s chat when you’re available,” but the rest of their conversation appears to have taken place by phone.

Robol said in the affidavit that he thought helping Harnett regain access to his email would “be helpful to the Republican Party.”

When Robol explained the options for accessing the website, Harnett “told me he preferred to do a brute force attack” so he could set up a new website offering cheaper tickets to the state convention, according to the affidavit.

Harnett has sparred with other party leaders over the convention fees. He wanted a $45 fee so that more grassroots activists can afford to attend and help select delegates for the national GOP convention. But the Executive Committee said the lower price wouldn’t cover event costs and instead set a $90 fee.

Harnett says lower attendance could mean the state party elects delegates who won’t stay loyal to outsider candidates like Donald Trump if no presidential candidate has the delegates to win the party’s nomination on the first ballot.

Harnett says Robol’s claims that Harnett wanted to crash the party website are “completely false and untrue.”

“I would call into question the statement from a person who ‘hacks’ websites as a credible source for the truth,” Harnett wrote in a letter to fellow Republicans.

Since the party released Robol’s statement, a new group – calling itself Republicans for Ethics and Transparency – has formed to support Harnett and investigate Robol’s actions.

On Tuesday, that group released screenshots of what it said were text messages from Robol in which the community college instructor says he wants “to get you the truth.”

Robol could not be reached Tuesday. The leader of the group investigating Robol, Farmville precinct chairman Todd Bennett, said the texts indicate that Robol wasn’t being honest in his written statement.

“It is unreasonable to think that Ken Robol woke up one day and decided he wanted to do this,” Bennett said, adding that he thinks party leaders were involved.

“I’m not going to name them. They know who they are. They need to resign.”

The NCGOP’s attorney, Tom Stark, said his investigation did not find any other people involved with Robol’s actions.

“The party has remained hopeful that it will be able to resolve this dispute, and it’s unfortunate that some people have tried to exacerbate it by appearing to form a bogus public interest group for the purpose of trying to harass Dr. Robol until he changes his testimony,” Stark said Tuesday.

Bennett’s group has filed a public records request with Pitt Community College for security camera footage around Robol’s office. Bennett said he wanted to see whether any GOP leaders visited the instructor. But the college had already erased the tapes.

Republicans for Ethics and Transparency had planned to hold a protest Tuesday at the N.C. Community College System headquarters in Raleigh, but the event was called off because of rain. WNCT, a Greenville TV station, reported that Pitt Community College leaders are investigating Robol’s actions but aren’t releasing details.

“My first goal is to restore the good name of Hasan Harnett” after “this ridiculous failed sting,” Bennett said.

Both sides said they want to resolve the dispute and focus on this year’s elections. But with Harnett sidelined and accusations continuing to fly, it’s unclear whether any major action will be taken before the June convention.

“It’s a needless distraction in what is already a complicated year because of the elections,” Stark said.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Website hacking claims are at center of NC Republican Party feud."