Haverford grad pleads in Trump IRS hacking attempt
PHILADELPHIA >> A recent Haverford College graduate who attempted to hack into President Donald Trump’s federal tax information through a student aid website has pleaded guilty in federal court to accessing a computer without authorization to obtain information from any protected computer and attempting to access a computer without authorization to obtain information from an agency of the United States, both misdemeanors.
Justin Hiemstra, 22, of St. Paul Park, Minn., entered his pleas before U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Tuesday. Co-defendant Andrew Harris, who was expelled from the college, is scheduled for a Sept. 5 arraignment and plea hearing.
“No matter what you think about the president’s tax returns, clearly this kind of illegal activity cannot be tolerated or condoned,” said U.S. Attorney William McSwain in a release. “Unauthorized or false attempts to obtain any citizen’s IRS filings are a serious violation of privacy rights and a federal crime, and there’s nothing funny about it. Now this defendant is being held accountable for his actions, as he should be.”
Defense attorney Michael Vanderveen, representing Hiemstra, did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday. Bill Brennan, representing Harris, described his client as “a good kid who did a bad thing” and said he has already paid “tremendously” for his mistake.
“It’s important to remember this is a couple of college kids with a prank gone awry,” said Brennan. “My client certainly has no ill will to the president or anyone in his family. This is Wayne and Garth in ‘Wayne’s World’ pulling a stunt gone bad.”
He said Harris, now 23, regrets his actions and wants to put the episode behind him, but his life has been placed on hold by the federal charges. Brennan expects his client’s case will also go to a non-trial disposition, based on negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to a plea memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony J. Wzorek in federal court this week, Hiemstra and Harris went to the school’s computer lab Nov. 2, 2016 – about a week before the presidential election – and attempted to access Trump’s tax returns via the Free Application for Student Aid website administered by the Department of Education.
Trump had indicated throughout the campaign that he would not release his tax returns due to an ongoing audit. Presidential candidates are not required to release tax returns, but typically do so anyway.
Harris was familiar with FAFSA because he had recently completed that application for himself, according to the memorandum. The application requires an individual to provide various information, including financial and tax information. The online application provides a prompt in which the user can electronically import that information from the Internal Revenue Service.
Hiemstra admitted that the two students created a false FAFSA application in the name of a member of the Trump family, but found someone had already obtained a log-in for Donald Trump and set up a password.
Harris and Hiemstra were able to answer “challenge questions” to reset the password, then input personal identifying information for Trump, including his date of birth and Social Security number, which had been released online, according to the plea document.
The pair allegedly attempted to import Trump’s federal tax information into the bogus FAFSA application, but were unable to do so. IRS records show that four attempts were made, the memorandum says.
The U.S. Department of Education monitors and logs all activity in FAFSA applications and the IRS monitors and logs all attempts to obtain tax information on FAFSA’s login-in system. Both systems link any activity to the unique Internet Protocol address used to access the application.
The plea document indicates the IP address used in this case was traced back to a computer in the Haverford College Roberts Hall computer lab. College records show another computer was used to Google information used in answering the challenge questions, according to the plea document.
The computer activity logs showed that an individual identified in court papers as “A.S.” logged onto one of the computers and “M.P.H.” logged onto the second. The memorandum indicates both were Haverford students at the time, but told investigators they did not know anything about the attempt.
The plea agreement indicates M.P.H. told investigators Hiemstra and Harris were close friends who were “computer knowledgeable,” and often tried to hack into each other’s accounts.
The memorandum states M.P.H. also said that he had allowed Harris to use his logon credentials in the past and that he had a conversation with Harris before the election about attempting to get Trump’s tax information.
Another person identified as Hiemstra’s girlfriend said she went with the defendants to the computer lab that day but did not know what they were working on, according to the memorandum. She heard them laughing at one point and looked at one of the computer screens, which appeared to be display tax information, according to the plea document.
The memorandum says Harris admitted that he got the idea to get Trump’s tax information through the FAFSA process in October 2016, when he filled out his own application. Harris allegedly admitted to going to the computer lab with Hiemstra and his girlfriend Nov. 2, 2016, and gaining access to the lab using his Haverford College OneCard.
Harris told investigators Hiemstra left briefly and swiped Harris’s OneCard in a different building to conceal his whereabouts, according to the memorandum. He then allegedly admitted to using M.P.H.’s credentials to log onto one of the computers, while Hiemstra used the credentials of A.S. to log onto another computer.
Hiemstra faces a maximum two years in prison, one year of supervised release and fine up to $200,000 at sentencing. No sentencing date has been set yet.