The Plot to Hack America

“The Plot to Hack America reads like a spy thriller, but it’s all too real.” –US Daily Review

Over 600 Amazon *FIVE STAR* Reviews!

“Nance states that, by their choices, actions, and statements, ‘Trump and Pence chose Russia’s values over America’s.’” –Michael Lipkin, New York Journal of Books

Published a full month prior to the divisive Trump vs. Clinton 2016 presidential election, this book exposed the Russian hacking while the CIA was drafting their own report. In April 2016, computer technicians at the Democratic National Committee discovered that someone had accessed the organization’s computer servers and conducted a theft that is best described as Watergate 2.0. In the weeks that followed, the nation’s top computer security experts discovered that the cyber thieves had helped themselves to everything: sensitive documents, emails, donor information, even voice mails.

Soon after, the remainder of the Democratic Party machine, the congressional campaign, the Clinton campaign, and their friends and allies in the media were also hacked. Credit cards numbers, phone numbers, and contacts were stolen. In short order, the FBI found that more than twenty-five state election offices had their voter registration systems probed or attacked by the same hackers.

Western intelligence agencies tracked the hack to Russian spy agencies and dubbed them the “Cyber Bears.” The media was soon flooded with the stolen information channeled through Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. It was a massive attack on America but the Russian hacks appeared to have a singular goal—elect Donald J. Trump as president of the United States.

New York Times bestselling author of Defeating ISIS, Airey Neave Memorial Book Prize finalist for Hacking ISIS, career intelligence officer, and MSNBC terrorism expert correspondent Malcolm Nance’s fast paced real-life spy thriller takes you from Vladimir Putin’s rise through the KGB from junior officer to spymaster-in-chief and spells out the story of how he performed the ultimate political manipulation—convincing Donald Trump to abandon seventy years of American foreign policy including the destruction of NATO, cheering the end of the European Union, allowing Russian domination of Eastern Europe, and destroying the existing global order with America at its lead.

The Plot to Hack America is the thrilling true story of how Putin’s spy agency, run by the Russian billionaire class, used the promise of power and influence to cultivate Trump as well as his closest aides, the Kremlin Crew, to become unwitting assets of the Russian government. The goal? To put an end to 240 years of free and fair American democratic elections.

Malcolm Nance is a globally recognized counter-terrorism expert and Intelligence Community member who has been deployed to intelligence operations in the Balkans, Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller Defeating ISIS and the Airey Neave Memorial Book Prize Finalist Hacking ISIS, and is a counter-terrorism analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“As an American double agent who worked against Russian intelligence in the US, this book shows how Putin’s spies stop at nothing.”
—Naveed Jamali, former double agent and author of How to Catch a Russian Spy

“The Plot to Hack America is an essential primer for anyone wanting to be fully informed about the unprecedented events surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Published shortly before the election, the book still provides the basic framework for understanding all that came after the election, much of which corroborates Nance’s claims and speculation. Remember, many people disputed or downplayed Russian involvement at the time. Subsequent developments show that Nance, the experienced intelligence operative, was way ahead of the curve.”
–Michael Lipkin, New York Journal of Books

“If you’ve read books like… Defeating ISIS, you know Malcolm’s expertise. If you’ve seen his 2007 congressional testimony using his firsthand experience with waterboarding to call it torture—back when that was controversial—you know Malcolm’s integrity. And if you’ve spent any time with his fellow Navy chiefs, you know Malcolm’s bluntness. It’s worth scrutinizing this bizarre episode in American politics and security. It’s unlikely to be a one-off event. After all, bears tend to go where they want—unless something stops them.”
–Spencer Ackerman, US National Security Editor, The Guardian, from his foreword

“Every single assertion Nance offers is backed by material from the PUBLIC record, clearly documented in end notes.”
–Kenneth J. Bernstein, Daily Kos

“The Plot to Hack America reads like a spy thriller, but it’s all too real.”
–US Daily Review

“If you had read this book as I did in November 2016 after Trump’s surprising, even to him, election, you would have known all this and all the characters now appearing who were in the Trump orbit and campaign… Thanks to the hero of the day, Malcolm Nance, we all now see where Mueller’s investigation is going and how its widening net includes interviewing White House insiders and Trump’s family members... By reading this book, at the urging of some of my key European advisors, I was forewarned of exactly how the Internet and all our media would be used by the Kremlin hackers to exploit the gullibility of US voters, so as to create today’s confusion and further divisions in our society.”
–Hazel Henderson, Ethical Markets



*** Praise for Malcolm Nance's New York Times bestselling Defeating ISIS ***

“I really think the [2016 Presidential] candidates ought to read this... You should buy this book.”
—Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC

“A comprehensive, authoritative, and detailed compendium on the Islamic State (ISIS).”
—Perspectives on Terrorism

“In his detailed and informed study Nance argues that, in effect, America's War on Terror created a new breed of vicious terrorists who wear the mask of Islam like actors in a Kabuki theatre while carrying out horrifically un-Islamic acts.”
—Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News, from his foreword



*** On the Russian Hacking ***

“Putin and the leaders throughout the world have no respect for our country anymore and they certainly have no respect for our leader.”
— Donald Trump, President of the United States of America

“We know that Russian intelligence services hacked into the DNC and we know that they arranged for a lot of those emails to be released… But I think laying out the facts raises serious issues about Russian interference in our elections, in our democracy.”
—Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State

“What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems.”
—Barack Obama, former President of the United States of America



*** Russia’s Response ***

“I wouldn’t know anything about it. You know, there are so many hackers today and they work with such finesse, planting a trail where and when they need… It’s difficult to trace, if even possible... The important thing here is what the public was shown… One shouldn’t draw the public attention from the core of the issue by replacing it with secondary details like who did it.”
—Vladimir Putin, Russian President

“Overall, we still see attempts to use—manically use—the Russian issue during the US electoral campaign. . . . The absurd claims were immediately refuted directly by a presidential candidate’s family.”
—Dmitry Peskov,Russian government spokesman



*** Praise for Skyhorse Publishing ***

“In the era of corporate dominated mainstream media and feckless herd reporting, Skyhorse's willingness to tackle tough issues that other publishers won't touch has made it a critical cog in our democracy.”
–Robert F. Kennedy Jr., New York Times bestselling author