By The Los Angeles Times

Published: Friday, February 8, 2013, 6:26 p.m.
Updated: Friday, February 8, 2013

HOUSTON — Members of the Bush family, including both former presidents, have apparently been hacked, and the Secret Service is investigating.

Bush family photos and excerpts of emails were posted online on Thursday by the Smoking Gun, which attributed them to a hacker known as “Guccifer.” Guccifer claimed to be a veteran hacker being sought by “the feds.” “This is just another chapter in the game,” he wrote.

The website reported that at least six email accounts had been hacked, including the AOL account of Dorothy Bush Koch, sister of George W. Bush, as well as former first lady Barbara Bush's brother and the elder Bush's sister-in-law.

The hacked emails, sent between 2009 and 2012, apparently contained security codes and a list of addresses and cellphone numbers.

The leaked photos included private moments: a snapshot of George H.W. Bush that appeared to have been taken during his recent stay in a Houston hospital, George W. Bush posing with a cardboard cutout of himself.

In leaked emails, the elder Bush's hospitalization prompted relatives to discuss funeral arrangements. The Smoking Gun reported that, “The former president's chief of staff wrote his children to inform them that ‘your dad's funeral team is having an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. just to go through all the details.' The Bush aide, Jean Becker, noted that this information ‘fell under the broadening category of things NOT TO TELL YOUR MOTHER.' ”

The Smoking Gun also reported that George W. Bush wrote he was “thinking about eulogy” and “solicited stories that best illustrated their father's sweet nature, favorite jokes, and acts of kindness. ‘Hopefully I'm jumping the gun,' noted Bush.”

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