Did hacker threaten Sanford and mistress over affair?

RIO DE JANEIRO — A television anchor who's the only journalist known to have spoken with South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's Argentine lover since news of their affair broke last week said the couple received an e-mail threat from the person who hacked into her Hotmail account.

Eduardo Feinmann, who worked with Maria Belen Chapur when she was a translator for Argentina's C5N news channel, said in a telephone interview from Buenos Aires that a member of Chapur's family told him of the threat on Saturday.

He said the family member told him that the e-mail from the unidentified person warned both Sanford and Chapur that "you don't know who you are messing with." He said he didn't know how either of them responded.

Feinmann said he was "totally certain" that the threat allegation is true. "Belen Chapur and her family never lie," he said. "They are very well respected."
Sanford's spokesman, Joel Sawyer, declined to comment. Chapur couldn't be reached.

The alleged threat adds to the mystery of who hacked into Chapur's Hotmail account and pirated the couple's love notes.

Chapur said in an e-mail to Feinmann, which the anchorman read on the air Sunday night, that her Hotmail account was hacked into around Nov. 24. She became aware of the intrusion shortly thereafter and by Dec. 8 had succeeded in having the account closed.

Feinmann said he was told that the e-mail threatening the couple arrived before Christmas. The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., didn't receive the electronic copies of the e-mails — five in all — until Dec. 30.
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