The battle between Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is about to come to fisticuffs—or, at least, some strongly-worded open letters.

The Senator from Vermont and part-time Larry David impersonator recently fired a staffer, Josh Uretsky, for taking advantage of a glitch in the DNC voter data system to access confidential records belonging to the Hillary Clinton campaign. This week, another Sanders staffer floated the idea that employees at the DNC originally recommended Uretsky, seeming to suggest that he may have been planted. Speaking to Yahoo’s Hunter Walker, the source said:

“It’s not as if we conjured this guy Josh from thin air. This is an individual … who was recommended to us by the DNC and NGP VAN [the company that owns the voter data software].”

According to the adviser, the DNC’s National Data Director Andrew Brown, an employee who works closely with the very same voter file program that Uretsky took data from, recommended Uretsky for the campaign.

“I just think it’s utter hypocrisy on their part. I mean here we are being attacked for the behavior of an individual, which we ultimately fired. We agree he acted improperly, but it’s just amazing to me that this … individual that actually caused this trouble in our campaign was recommended by these guys.”

Plant or no, the Sanders campaign is on the attack. In the wake of the debacle, the DNC temporarily cut Sanders off from his own voter data, a move that prompted a lawsuit and allegations that the organization was purposefully sandbagging him. The lawsuit will go on, Sanders said this earlier week. But even in all the hubbub, Sanders hasn’t stopped campaigning, and even sent out a little tweet about moms.

[Image via Getty]


Contact the author at melissa.cronin@gawker.com.