As if the whodunnit into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee wasn't already confusing and murky enough, the supposed Romanian hacker who first released the emails resurfaced on Thursday to say everyone has it wrong.
“I’d like to make it clear enough that these accusations are unfounded,” Guccifer 2.0 said in Thursday blog post. “I have totally no relation to the Russian government.”
Make of that what you will.
According to U.S. intelligence agencies, Guccifer 2.0 is actually a front for Kremlin-backed cyberspies.
“It’s obvious that the intelligence agencies are deliberately falsifying evidence,” said a message on the Guccifer 2.0 blog.
There's good reason to doubt Guccifer's claims. He or she -- or they -- previously claimed to be Romanian, but a journalist previously reported testing out Guccifer's Romanian skills and found them lacking.
Guccifer 2.0's re-emergence after a two-month hiatus from Twitter and his blog is certainly designed to stir the pot. Especially after Donald Trump spent weeks doubting Russian involvement in the hack and only this week changed his tune to match that of U.S. intelligence agencies.
It was based on that intelligence assessment that President Obama ordered sanctions against Russia and also vowed covert action.
The statements from Guccifer 2.0 are just the latest twist in a hacking saga that grows more political, and even bizarre. Earlier this week, unsubstantiated allegations arose that Russia had compromising information on President-elect Donald Trump, which he promptly denied.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has rejected any involvement in the hacks.