BREAKING: LEAKED Document Shows DNC "Intimately Involved" With Iowa Caucus App! #DNC #Iowa #IowaCaucus #IowaApp #IowaCaucusApp
Documents reveal DNC was 'intimately involved' in development of troubled Iowa caucus app
While the Democratic National Committee over the past 10 days has tried to distance itself from the troubled app that threw the results of the Iowa caucuses into disarray, a copy of the contract and internal correspondence provided to Yahoo News demonstrates that national party officials had extensive oversight over the development of the technology.
The Democrats’ Iowa caucuses took place on Feb. 3, but the outcome is still in question following a series of issues related to the failure of an app that was supposed to be used to submit results. In the days since the debacle, DNC Chair Tom Perez has criticized the Iowa Democratic Party, which ran the caucuses, and the developer of the app, Shadow Inc.
An unaffiliated Democratic operative in Iowa provided Yahoo News with a copy of the contract between Shadow and the Iowa Democratic Party. The contract, which was signed on Oct. 14, 2019, and refers to Shadow as the “Consultant,” specified that the company had to work with the DNC and provide the national party with access to its software for testing. “Consultant agrees to work with the DNC Services Corporation / Democratic National Committee (‘DNC’) on an on-going basis as Consultant develops the software,” the contract reads.
The contract also specifies that Shadow agrees to “provide DNC continual access to review the Consultant’s system configurations, security and system logs, system designs, data flow designs, security controls (preventative and detective), and operational plans for how the Consultant will use and run the Software for informational dissemination, pre-registration, tabulation, and reporting throughout the caucus process.”An email provided to Yahoo News also appears to show that Seema Nanda, the CEO of the DNC, and Kat Atwater, the national party’s deputy chief technology officer, were involved in drafting the contract and requested the addition of the provision that gave them access to Shadow and the app. In the email, dated July 30, 2019, Atwater provided an IDP official with draft text for the provision detailing the DNC’s access to the app. Atwater, in the email, said the provision was specifically requested by Nanda.
“In discussing our placement in the process with Seema on Friday, she suggested that it would be helpful to include the following provision in the contracts with your vendors,” Atwater wrote to the IDP. DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa responded to questions about the contract language and Atwater’s email by saying the party wanted access to the app only to address potential security concerns.
“We requested access to the tool solely for the purpose of doing security testing,” Hinojosa said.
Hinojosa disputed that the DNC was involved in the development of the app. “The DNC drafted broad language to make sure whatever vendor IDP ultimately hired was required to work with the DNC’s cyber-security consultant,” she said. “We did not build the application, nor did we provide ‘oversight’ of its development — that’s the vendor’s responsibility. We only provided security assistance.”
The copies of Atwater’s email and Shadow’s contract with the IDP obtained by Yahoo News contained some redactions. Sources familiar with the original documents confirmed the authenticity of the copies. Atwater’s email was redacted to omit the name of the IDP official she communicated with. The Shadow contract was redacted to omit signatures and details about how much the company was paid by the IDP.
A source who worked on the caucus said the payment information was redacted from the copy of the contract provided to Yahoo
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