title: “NO COINCIDENCE”: U.S. EXTRADITES ROMANIAN HACKER Of Clinton/Blumenthal E-mails
text:  THE BIG QUESTION WITH THE EXTRADITION OF THE HACKER NAMED GUCCIFER: Will he only be used to demonstrate how easy it was to crack Max Blumethal s private account and thus how negligent Hillary was in handling classified material?WE REPORTED ON THE SMOKING GUN RELEASE OF GUCCIFER S INFO ON CLINTON/BLUMENTHAL EXCHANGES. The e-mails between Clinton and Blumenthal expose what self-centered lunatics they are. Unreal:Testimony from State Department Employee on Clinton s handling of classified information: The extradition of Romanian hacker  Guccifer  to the U.S. at a critical point in the FBI s criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton s email use is  not a coincidence,  according to an intelligence source close to the case.One of the notches on Guccifer s cyber-crime belt was allegedly accessing the email account of Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, one of Clinton s most prolific advice-givers when she was secretary of state. It was through that hack that Clinton s use of a personal account   clintonemail.com   first came to light.Former law enforcement and cyber security experts said the hacker, whose real name is Marcel Lehel Lazar, could   now that he s in the U.S.   help the FBI make the case that Clinton s email server was compromised by a third party, one that did not have the formal backing and resources of a foreign intelligence service such as that of Russia, China or Iran. Because of the proximity to Sidney Blumenthal and the activity involving Hillary s emails, [the timing] seems to be something beyond curious,  said Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI s Criminal Investigative Division from 2012-2014.On Tuesday, Lazar appeared in an Alexandria, Va., federal courtroom for his detention hearing, attended by Fox News. He faces a nine-count federal indictment on computer hacking charges and, according to both Romanian and U.S. officials, is expected to be in the country for 18 months.A spokesman for the FBI s Washington Field Office, which led the Guccifer investigation, had no comment on the extradition, the timing, and any potential intersection with the Clinton email probe.On or about March 31, Lazar was extradited 3,700 miles to Alexandria from a prison in Arad, Romania, where he has been serving a seven-year sentence for hacking crimes committed in his native country. His targets in Romania were prominent government officials and political figures whom he often taunted under the name of Micul Fum or  Little Smoke. Following his 2014 conviction, Lazar was effectively neutralized in prison and no longer a threat, which makes his transfer to the U.S. all the more noteworthy.The 44-year-old entered the Alexandria courtroom wearing a green jumpsuit, with the yellow word  PRISONER  stenciled on the back. Lazar appeared confident and relaxed during the four-minute appearance, telling the court he did not need the translator provided for the hearing.According to the 15-page federal indictment, Lazar  specialized in gaining unauthorized access to the online accounts of high-profile individuals  including Clinton ally Blumenthal, who appears to be identified as  Victim 5   a journalist and former presidential advisor who was the true owner of an AOL account with subaccounts known to the grand jury. The indictment went on to note that using his alias of Guccifer on Blumenthal s account,  Lazar attempted to conceal his identity by accessing the account from a proxy server located in Russia. Read more: FOX News (Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne)