PJ Media

I’d say the most likely conspiratorial explanation is that some opposition researcher approached the state-department workers and offered them a large pile of cash in exchange for the candidates’ SSNs. Except I bet opposition researchers already have all the SSNs they want, and they probably know how to get them without making national headlines. A lot of companies don’t seem to see a problem with using their customers’ SSNs for internal identification purposes, so it can’t be very hard to get a hold of them.