Mr. Lopez's Twitter account after the hacking. (photo: Twitter)

"We're trying to figure this out," a staffer in Mr. Lopez's district office said when Politicker called them to ask about the hacker a few moments ago.

Prior to the sexual harassment scandal, Mr. Lopez enjoyed a powerful perch as chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. He resigned from his party leader position in late August shortly after the sexual harassment allegations surfaced. As leader of the Brooklyn Democrats, Mr. Lopez developed a cadre of particularly vehement opponents fond of criticizing him as a corrupt party "boss."

Once the impostor gained control of Mr. Lopez's account today, they changed his name on the site to "Boss Vito" and modified his biography to read, "I proudly like to sexual harass my staff members." They also posted a message on the account.

"I'm Assemblyman Vito Gropez, I like to sexual harass my staff members, and to boss on the entire Brooklyn democratic party," one message read.

The hacker also posted a series of tweets cheering on Abe George, a candidate for Brooklyn District Attorney allied with the anti-Lopez faction. They also retweeted a post from Mr. George's account criticizing the current D.A. for not investigating Mr. Lopez and being unwilling "to go after political corruption."

As of this writing, the hacker has not responded to a Twitter message asking them to get in touch for comment on this story. The staffer in Mr. Lopez's office said they are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

Update (4:45 pm): Inimitable Crains reporter Chris Bragg spoke to Mr. Lopez about the hacking. The assemblyman said he didn't send the tweets in question and hasn't sent any other tweets ever, for that matter.

"I don’t use the Internet. I’ve never sent out a tweet or an email. I’ve never sent out a twit," Mr. Lopez said.

A still from the Occupy Wall Street raid video released by someone claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous. (Photo: YouTube)

On Sunday, someone claiming to be affiliated with the hacker activist group Anonymous, released a two minute clip containing footage of last November's eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park that they said was obtained from the NYPD's Technical Assistance Response Unit. While the clip has widely been covered as having been "leaked" from the police, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne told Politicker the clip was 'not 'leaked'' and may have been a combination of footage from television news cameras, public court records and even possibly from the occupiers themselves.

Reporters were infamously prevented from getting behind police barricades during the eviction of the Occupy encampment. In Anonymous' footage of the raid, a narrator said "the authorities made all media leave the scene and the only images of what happened came from one livestreamer who stayed in the center of the park until his arrest and one other citizen journalist" and described the footage as "a trove of video shot by the NYPD itself from 14 different angles including surveillance cameras." A statement accompanying the clip also said "much of the video" was "edited by the NYPD," which they accused of "covering up their attrocities [sic] committed November 15th in Zuccotti park."

Mr. Browne disputed all of these claims.

"It was not 'leaked,' and does not show any misconduct by police. Contrary to the narrator's account, there were scores of protesters who took video with no attempts by the police to confiscate it," Mr. Browne said. "I saw one protester standing near me who videotaped the same opening scene in the youtube video of officers sawing a chain that two protesters used to chain themselves to a tree in the park. Further, the west side of Zuccotti Park on Church Street was lined with television news personnel and satellite trucks, many of whom filmed events that night."

The footage released by Anonymous doesn't appear to show any instances of police brutality or excessive force. Anonymous' clip does include some footage that appears to have been taken by surveillance cameras as well as audio of a man identifying himself as a detective with the TARU unit. Mr. Browne suggested the surveillance footage and the audio may have come from court records from some of the many lawsuits related to the eviction.

"The TARU's detective voice, if genine, sounds like it may have be taken from material turned over to plaintiffs who are suing the police. It was not 'leaked' by the police, but possibly by someone suing us, and not much of a leak since it's part of the court record," said Mr. Browne.

Update (9:02 p.m.): Mr. Browne told us he believes the detective's voice heard on the video was actually recorded by occupiers who were near him at the time of the eviction.

"We think the detective, as he was making the statement into his own equipment, was taped by a protester standing nearby. In other words, they got his voice, but not his videotape," he said. 

Anonymous' clip begins with footage of someone wearing what appears to be an NYPD uniform and Anonymous' signature Guy Fawkes mask. To avoid any confusion, Mr. Browne made clear this was not an actual police officer.

"Also, the video suggests that the image at the start is an actual officer in an NYPD uniform, in addition to the anarchist mask," Mr. Browne said. "The problem is that the collar brass doesn't comport with his claimed assignment, and the patch over his right shirt pocket is in the wrong place. It's a shoulder patch not worn on the shirt. The 'badge' on the left shirt pocket is clearly bogus."

Watch the video in question below.

Senator Chuck Grassley (Photo: Twitter)

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley withdrew his support for the controversial Protect I.P. Act, better known as PIPA, last Wednesday, but that didn't stop an angry PIPA opponent from hacking into his Twitter account today. As of this writing, over 20 Tweets have been sent from Senator Grassley's account this afternoon that appear to be the work of a hacker.

"Yes I was hacked," one of the Tweets said.

A few of the Tweets posted on Senator Grassley's account indicate the hacker is upset over the senator's initial support for PIPA, a bill designed to protect intellectual property and curb piracy that has drawn the ire of internet users.

"Chuck is a supporter of SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, meaning he wants no privacy for private accounts," read another one of the Tweets.

Someone claiming to be a different person claims to have changed Senator Grassley's password, which the hacker said was "chuck123," and invited his staffers to get in touch with them if they want the account back.

"Someone from the Senators office contact me at the email i set up at grassleytwitter@gmail.com and I'll give you the new password," they wrote. "To clarify, I'm not the person that originally hacked the account. I think that person got their point across."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shelved PIPA on Friday after the growing controversy over the bill caused it to shed supporters. In the House, the related Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, was also shelved.

Though SOPA and PIPA seem to have been stopped, the fight over intellectual property on the internet is far from over in Washington. Congressman Darrell Issa introduced a new bill aimed at combating online piracy in the House last Wednesday.

Update (3:06 p.m.) -- Senator Grassley's communications director, Jill Kozeny sent us the following statement about the Twitter contretemps:

Here's what happened here today.  Grassley staff noticed the hacking after the first false Tweet was posted, and the office immediately called Twitter to obtain access to the account so the password could be changed.  The password has been changed, and Senator Grassley controls the account again.  Senator Grassley posts his Tweets from his BlackBerry.  He's traveling from Iowa to Washington this afternoon.

Georgia police shot and killed a woman who allegedly sent a fake WMD to State Senator Greg Ball.

Museums are collecting memorabilia from the Occupy Wall Street protests. 

President Obama is still holding on to donations connected to the bankrupt brokerage firm MF Global.

Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito is a big fan of Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN she'd "love do-overs on several things" including the effort to rebuild Iraq and "some of the aspects with our relationship with Mexico."

Newt Gingrich compared his exclusion from the Virginia primary ballot to Pearl Harbor.

Mitt Romney doesn't want to release his tax returns or the names of his bundlers.

Michele Bachmann is going on a 99 county bus tour of Iowa.

Hackers affiliated with Anonymous celebrated Christmas by attacking the security think tank Stratfor.