Rep. David Hawk of Greeneville has won a new term while facing charges of domestic assault against his wife, unofficial returns indicate.
The Republican lawmaker, who stepped down as chairman of the House Conservation and Enviornment Committee after being charged in March, had 11,382 votes to 8,124 for former Democratic state Rep. Eddie Yokley, according to unofficial returns with most of the vote counted.
The Williamson County Republican Party this morning notified police about a package received last week that claims to include copies of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s tax returns hacked from an accounting office in Franklin, reports The Tennessean.
A letter in the package corresponds to an incredible claim posted anonymously on a website popular among computer hackers that boasts of having downloaded copies of the tax returns obtained by hacking into systems via PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Franklin office. Whoever is behind the message is threatening to release the filings by the end of the month unless they receive $1 million.
For the same price, someone interested in seeing the returns made public could guarantee that action, according to the letter. Whomever pays first, wins.
The author of the online letter also states copies of Romney’s tax returns were left with the county Republican and Democratic offices, and on Wednesday morning both those organizations confirmed that they received suspicious looking packages containing a flash drive and a copy of the letter.
Jean Barwick, executive director of the Williamson County Republican Party, held up a small manila envelope in her office that she said contained the drive and the letter. Scrawled in green lettering across one side are the words “For Rep Learders” (sic).
Barwick said she found the package Friday and called the state GOP office to see if they’d received a similar envelope. Barwick did not call the police until Wednesday, she said, because she didn’t think the extortion attempt seemed credible.