Polish PM’s aide, target of email hacking, resigns

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish prime minister’s chief of staff, whose emails were hacked and published over many months, resigned on Friday.

Michal Dworczyk and other members of the government of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki have said they believe the hacking was part of a Russian disinformation campaign carried out by the Russian and Belarusian secret services.

Dworczyk said he was resigning for personal reasons and because he felt that he could not work in that position as effectively as before. He had held the job for five years.

Hackers broke into a private email account that Dworczyk used for state business. Beginning last year they began publishing his private messages.

Morawiecki has criticised media which which have published the messages, saying they had fallen into a trap set by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

One leaked message appeared to show the government discussing cases under review by the constitutional court with its chief justice, an apparent violation of judicial independence.