Cameron Slater is a fat, lying HYPOCRITE

from Fairfax NZ....

Cameron Slater in court for trying to hire hacker to attack rival site

Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater unmasked for trying to pay to hack a rival site.

By KELLY DENNETT | 4:19PM - Tuesday, 10 May 2016

WhaleOil blogger Cameron Slater. — Photograph: Phil Walter/Fairfax NZ.

WWHALEOIL blogger Cameron Slater was charged with paying a hacker to break into leftist blog site The Standard as part of the continuing fallout of the Dirty Politics saga.

The details of the charges can be revealed for the first time following a name suppression hearing at the Manukau District Court.

Slater faced a single charge of trying to procure a hacker to access the computer system of The Standard's website “with dishonest intent and without claim of right in order to obtain property and/or a benefit, namely computer files, or information from computer files”.

No hack actually took place.

The alleged would-be hacker, Ben Rachinger, 28, is also facing charges — for taking $1,000 from Slater by deception, leading Slater to believe he was going to commit a hack of The Standard.

Rachinger has pleaded not guilty to the charge and will go to trial.

Ben Rachinger who blew the whistle on Cameron Slater, claiming he was offered
money to hack a rival site.

Slater however was offered diversion — essentially meaning he admitted the offence but after undertaking counselling and community work as part of a police scheme for adults, the charges were withdrawn.

Slater was due to complete his diversion by May 6th and police in turn officially dropped the charge and no conviction was entered.

All details about the charges, including Slater's name, were suppressed at Slater's first appearance in December last year following an application by the police, citing fair trial rights, despite opposition from media, Rachinger and The Standard.

Slater applied for the suppression order to continue but Judge Richard McIlraith turned him down and ordered his name and the details of the charges could be revealed.

Slater, who has long been a critic of name suppression being granted to prominent people, said publication of his name would case him severe hardship.

In court, arguing to keep his name secret, he alleged an “orchestrated campaign” against him by media and Rachinger to cause him hardship.

But Judge McIlraith ruled his name should be outed.

Nicki Hager launching his book Dirty Politics, which accused political figures
and Cameron Slater of working together to slate rivals.
— Photograph: Ross Giblin/Fairfax NZ.

The charges against the pair came after Rachinger made public claims in January 2015 that he had been paid to hack The Standard, sparking a police investigation.

Rachinger told TV3's The Nation that Slater had asked him to retrieve information from The Standard, including who its anonymous contributors were, their email addresses, and IP addresses for future hacking.

The Standard is a left wing blog site run by editor Lynn Prentice, while Slater is infamous for his right-wing site WhaleOil.

WhaleOil was deemed an official news site by the High Court in 2014, cementing Slater as a bonafide journalist.

Rachinger, a former Young Nat, worked on the WhaleOil blog for a short time before leaving under a cloud, claiming he began to see a dedicated attack on political figure heads, orchestrated by National party members and prominent public relations experts.

These attacks became the focus of investigative journalist Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics.

Cameron Slater told a court he had been the target of an “orchestrated campaign”
to cause him hardship. — Photograph: Phil Walter/Fairfax NZ.

WHO'S WHO

Ben Rachinger initially helped Slater run WhaleOil. Both are National supporters, Rachinger is a former Young Nat and Slater is the son of former National Party president John Slater.

Rachinger said he stopped working for Slater after claiming he began to see WhaleOil launch a dedicated attack on political figure heads, orchestrated by National party members and prominent public relations experts.

These accusations formed investigative journalist Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics, which was derived from material hacked from Cameron Slater's personal emails and Facebook messages.

The person who hacked Slater, who gives himself the moniker Rawshark, hacked the information and sent it anonymously to Hager.

After a falling out with Slater, Rachinger told The Nation's Lisa Owen he'd been paid by Slater to hack The Standard. Rachinger was said to have produced thousands of documents including texts and emails with Slater, and bank statements, to support his claims.

The Standard is contributed to by various political writers, and was borne from the newspaper masthead which was started by Labour movement activists.

Rachinger once claimed to be Rawshark, but later back-tracked and said the claim was a joke.

Although the identity of Rawshark still remains a mystery, police have been investigating the hacker, going so far as to carry out a raid on Nicky Hager's home, which the courts later criticised as illegal.

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