A person claiming to be a co-founder of the online hacker collective Anonymous has been arrested following a data breach in 2021 that targeted the Texas Republican Party.
Aubrey Cottle, a 37-year-old Canadian national, is known professionally as “Kirtaner.”
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Cottle with hacking into the Texas Republican Party’s web server and stealing sensitive data in 2021.
Cottle was arrested in Canada Wednesday, and authorities there are pursuing additional charges under Canadian law, the DOJ said.
According to reports, the individual in question, known as Cottle, is accused of stealing a copy of the website’s server, which contained sensitive personal information. This data was then shared online for anyone to access, with prosecutors claiming that Cottle even boasted about the incident on social media.
Cottle’s TikTok page’s bio says “that Anonymous founder hacker guy you probably saw in the news or Vice or sumthn.”
The Department of Justice seal during a news conference at the DOJ office in Washington May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
According to the DOJ, data from the Texas Republican Party leak was discovered in a search on Cottle’s personal electronic devices.
The hacking of the website by the Anonymous group was purportedly done in response to the pro-life legislation passed in Texas in September 2021 known as the Texas Heartbeat Act. This law effectively bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detectable, typically around five to six weeks into pregnancy.
Cottle has also been linked to a “political doxing” data breach of Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo in February 2022, after the platform hosted a fundraiser for the Canada Freedom Convoy. Names of donors, intended to remain private and secure on the platform, were publicized across the internet.
Trucks parked in Ottawa on the 19th day of the Freedom Convoy protest. (Fox News Digital/Lisa Bennatan)
GiveSendGo founder Jacob Wells spoke with Fox News Digital at the time of the breach.
“This is illegal, and these people should be going to jail. The FBI — I mean, it’s surprising that we haven’t heard from any investigative services. We will be reaching out ourselves to just see that there’s some investigation into this. This is completely unacceptable,” Wells said.
GiveSendGo has a crowdfunding campaign for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.
The FBI Austin Cyber Task Force is investigating Cottle’s case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney G. Karthik Srinivasan is prosecuting the case. If convicted, Cottle faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
