Data dispute rips open Democrats' race before debate
There's a civil war inside the Democratic Party.
Hillary Clinton is accusing Bernie Sanders' campaign of theft, saying the Vermont senator's aides stole millions of dollars' worth of voter data held by the Democratic National Committee.
The breach of information led to a suspension for the Sanders campaign, which then sued the DNC, but late Friday night, a deal was reached to clear up the mess ahead of Saturday night's Democratic debate.
CBS News' Julianna Goldman reports this dispute has laid bare tensions between the DNC and the Sanders campaign that had been simmering for months.
The Sanders campaign is accusing party officials of trying to undermine his campaign and to help Clinton.
Sanders' campaign cried foul on Friday, calling the suspension of its access to voter data "a death sentence" that would cost it $600,000 a day in lost donations.
The DNC blocked Sanders from a shared database after a glitch allowed his staffers to view voter information compiled by Clinton's campaign, data that Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said the candidate doesn't need.
Sanders' campaign filed a federal lawsuit against the DNC, while also providing the committee with information on how it used and disposed of the data.
The glitch occured on Wednesday.
It enabled Sanders staffers to view voter data gathered by the Clinton campaign for about 45 minutes.
Data director Josh Uretsky was fired by the campaign.
He told CBS News he was not trying to snoop.
"My goal was to create a record of what was wrong so that I could accurately assess both for the campaign and for the DNC what my understanding was of what was wrong," he said.
Several other Sanders staffers are under investigation.
The DNC lifted the suspension late Friday night but said it will continue to investigate.
Meanwhile, Clinton's campaign is accusing the Sanders campaign of theft and saying they're downplaying the situation.
On a conference call Friday night, officials criticized a fundraising email sent to Sanders supporters on Friday.
Clinton's campaign manager said, "We are particularly disturbed right now that they are using the fact that they stole data as a reason to raise money for their campaign."
Clinton's campaign is also saying that the data gathered by the Sanders campaign included fundamental parts of their strategy, so it's all making for some unexpected drama at Saturday night's Democratic debate.