AfD email leak revealed contacts with Russia and Trump — The Local Germany
In Germany, following a cyberattack on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, a trove of stolen data has appeared in the public domain. As The Local reports, journalists reviewed some of approximately 421,000 emails sent to or from addresses linked to official party members, as well as other documents. The total volume of the published data is about 281 gigabytes.
AfD confirmed to dpa and other media outlets that correspondence and other data had been hacked and stolen. The files include work correspondence, spam and probable phishing messages, but some documents concern the party's ties with Russia, support for Donald Trump and a donations scandal.
Congratulations to Trump and elections in Russia
Correspondence from November 2016, which The Local links to then AfD co-chair Frauke Petry, indicates that she suggested party members send an official congratulatory message to US President-elect Donald Trump. The idea was supported by several current and former party representatives, including from an address that the outlet attributes to current AfD co-chair Alice Weidel. Petry sent the final greeting on November 11, 2016.
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Another email chain, dated January 2018, concerns an invitation for AfD Bundestag member Markus Frohnmaier and up to six other party representatives to observe elections in the aggressor state of Russia. After the trip, an assessment was sent from an account that the outlet attributes to Frohnmaier, stating that the presidential election had been fair and democratic. At the same time, the OSCE noted in its report unequal conditions due to extensive and uncritical coverage of the incumbent president in most media.
The Thuringia episode and donations
The documents also renewed attention to a 2018 story in which AfD members from Thuringia were linked to a trip to places associated with Adolf Hitler. An email attributed to party representative Stefan Möller stated that two AfD members resigned after the state branch's leadership saw a photograph of people in front of a banner with a swastika and SS symbols. At the same time, the report noted that it was not possible to conclusively confirm that a so-called Hitler pilgrimage had taken place with the participation of current or former party members. According to the report, all participants in the tourist trip known to investigators later left AfD.
The leak also contains information about the donations scandal involving Weidel. In 2018, she came under scrutiny over approximately €132,000 in donations that, according to the source, arrived in several installments through intermediaries and were allegedly linked to a Swiss pharmaceutical company. The Bundestag deemed the funds illegal and fined AfD €396,000 — approximately three times the donation amount. A Berlin court upheld the fine in 2023.
