If you read the entire article, Steve Deace, originally denied they belonged to the campaign, and then came back and admitted it was true, according to BuzzFeed.
I have no information whether or not Ted Cruz knew.
The people on the ground never knew what the people higher up were doing, this happened to me during the Romney campaign. Of Course, none of our stuff worked on election day either. wish I could have that 5 months back :(
Timing was bad. They should have put this out weeks or months ago...