WASHINGTON
– The hacker known as Guccifer – but better known for exposing Hillary
Clinton’s private email server – was sentenced today by a U.S. court to four
years and four months in jail.

Federal
District Court Judge James Cacheris passed down the sentencing in Alexandria,
Virginia, on Thursday morning, along with a stern admonishment that recent
cyber attacks are an example of how hackers are trying to influence “the
very machinery of our democracy.”

Guccifer,
aka 44-year-old Romanian cab driver Marcel Lazar, had been extradited from his
homeland in March to face a U.S. grand jury.

Lazar
pleaded guilty earlier this year to two of the nine charges — aggravated
identity theft and unauthorized access to a protected computer.

Today’s
sentences of 24 months and 28 months for those charges are to be served
consecutively, and will be followed by a three-year term of supervised release.

The
charges stem from what the U.S. government described as a “computer
hacking spree” during 2012-2014 that included targets such as former
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Sidney Blumenthal, a former Clinton aide.

In
total, Lazar breached the email and social media accounts of over 100 Americans
and made much of those findings public, revealing the clintonemail.com domain
name – which ultimately led to an FBI investigation into Clinton’s handling of
classified information.

The
Romanian hacker first rose to prominence in the U.S. after he hacked into email
accounts belonging to George W. Bush and made public some of the former
president’s own paintings, including bath-time self-portraits.

Because
of his AOL-heavy cyberattacks, Lazar was sentenced in Virginia, where internet
service provider AOL is based.

Following
his four years in U.S. jail, Lazar must still complete a seven-year sentence in
Romania.