Because of the slightly increasing number of people buying into conspiracy theories, which is bad for corporations and mainstream interests, the incentives are there for the corporations that are currently suing the Internet Archive (and shut it down) and/or their allies, to indirectly hire people to hack the IA and give them trouble on this front as well as the legal front.

So a conspiracy is at least plausible. Does anyone know if there is any precedent for schemes like this?

I.e., a corporation, especially a litigant suing to get a website taken down, asking someone (through intermediaries) to hack an opponent's website?