J.D. Vance Dossier Leak

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Overview

The J.D. Vance Dossier Leak refers to a leaked document allegedly sourced from Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign that was a dossier meant to brief vice presidential pick J.D. Vance, covering his past political allegiances, policies and endorsements, among other facts. The document was allegedly leaked by Iranian hackers that major news outlets labeled foreign malign influence on the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. In turn, major news outlets didn't publish or acknowledge the dossier. However, the dossier was made public by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein in late September 2024, who shared it on his Substack and Twitter / X accounts. Klippenstein said that a man named "Robert" emailed the document to him and Klippenstein published it based on his belief that "it’s of keen public interest in an election season." Klippenstein believed that, if authentic, the document revealed what policies the Trump campaign actually held as opposed to what it was telling the public. Ken Klippenstein was banned on X because of his post. An X spokesperson announced that the ban occurred because Klippenstein leaked sensitive information about Vance held in the document, like part of his social security number and apparent address, violating the website's policy on doxxing. Many internet users speculated that X's owner Elon Musk, a known supporter of Vance and Trump, personally ordered the ban on Klippenstein to stop the dossier's spread and that the sensitive information was public knowledge already.

Background

On September 18th, 2024, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a joint statement from the ODNI, FBI, and CISA, regarding "Iranian malicious cyber actors" who "sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign." The emails were allegedly sent in June and July 2024. The statement did not reveal what the leaked documents were.^[1]

On August 10th, 2024, Politico^[8] published an article, stating, "We received internal Trump documents from 'Robert.' Then the campaign confirmed it was hacked." The article described a statement Politico received from Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, who said, "These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process." Politico did not publish the leaked documents.

Ken Klipperstein's Substack Post

On September 26th, 2024, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein shared a post to his Substack^[2] called "Read the JD Vance Dossier," which included "the supposed Iran-hacked document" for public download. Klippenstein claimed that news media had been "sitting on" the document since June and would not publish it, citing "foreign malign influence." Alternatively, Klippenstein believed "it’s of keen public interest in an election season."

Furthermore, Klippenstein believed that "the document is clearly newsworthy, providing Republican Party and conservative doctrine insight into what the Trump campaign perceives to be Vance’s liabilities and weaknesses. Those perceptions provide clues about what a campaign of remarkably little substance might actually think."

In a day, Klippenstein's Substack post received 840 likes (screenshot shown below).

Ken Klipperstein's Twitter / X Ban

On September 26th, 2024, Klipperstein shared his Substack link on his Twitter / X account. Shortly after, Klipperstein's X account was banned.^[3]^[4] A screenshot of the tweet was shared by internet user A.J. Carrillo on both X^[10] and Imgur^[11] on September 26th (shown below).

An X spokesperson told reporters that Klipperstein was banned for posting “unredacted private personal information” about Vance, including part of his social security number and his alleged physical addresses.^[3]^[4]

The Verge noted X's policy change on sharing leaked/hacked documents after Elon Musk's acquisition of the website. When the New York Post leaked Hunter Biden's hard drive, then-CEO Jack Dorsey regretted banning the links to the Post's article and changed the website's policy on sharing hacked documents. Musk was one of Dorsey's critics amid the controversy and, after his Twitter acquisition, orchestrated and publicized the Twitter FIles leak that documented Dorsey's censorship of the Post's article. The Verge highlighted hypocrisy after discovering that the link to Klipperstein's Substack post had been restricted on the platform.^[3]

Online Reaction

Viral reactions to the dossier leak surfaced en masse on September 26th, 2024, following Ken Klipperstein's since-deleted tweet. For instance, on September 26th, X^[5] user @tinycans tweeted part of the dossier's table of contents, writing, "the table of content[s] for the JD Vance dossier is the funniest thing ive ever seen," gaining over 6,900 likes in a day (shown below).

After Klipperstein was banned on X, viral reactions ensued. For instance, on September 26th, X^[6] user @BirdRespecter tweeted, "If anybody still believes the delusional notion that Elon is some sort of free speech champion and not a total partisan hack, he suspended Ken for leaking the JD Vance dossier. Shameful and cowardly behavior," receiving over 23,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Similarly, on September 26th, X^[7] user @TheWapplehouse posted a tweet, claiming that "there was absolutely nothing in the dossier that Ken published that isn’t readily available to the public by Googling…" gaining over 14,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on September 26th, X^[9] user @joer__ shared a thread of every page in the leaked dossier. Within 24 hours, the initial viral tweet that started the thread was removed by X.