The impact of the information released by the hackers on candidates like Ms. Taddeo in Florida and others in nearly a dozen House races around the country was largely lost in the focus on the hacking attacks against the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But this untold story underscores the effect the Russian operation had on the American electoral system.
“This is not a traditional tit-for-tat on a partisan political campaign, where one side hits the other and then you respond,” said Kelly Ward, executive director of the D.C.C.C. “This is an attack by a foreign actor that had the intent to disrupt our election, and we were the victims of it.”
The document dump’s effectiveness was due in part to a de facto alliance that formed between the Russian hackers and political bloggers and newspapers across the United States. The hackers, working under the made-up name of Guccifer 2.0, used social media tools to invite individual reporters to request specific caches of documents, handing them out the way political operatives distribute scoops. It was an arrangement that proved irresistible to many news outlets — and amplified the consequences of the cyberattack.
Documents stolen from a prominent journalist and critic of the Russian government were manipulated and then released as a “leak” to discredit domestic and foreign critics of the government. We call this technique “tainted leaks.”
The operation against the journalist led us to the discovery of a larger phishing operation, with over 200 unique targets spanning 39 countries (including members of 28 governments). The list includes a former Russian Prime Minister, members of cabinets from Europe and Eurasia, ambassadors, high ranking military officers, CEOs of energy companies, and members of civil society.
After government targets, the second largest set (21%) are members of civil society including academics, activists, journalists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
We have no conclusive evidence that links these operations to a particular Russian government agency; however, there is clear overlap between our evidence and that presented by numerous industry and government reports concerning Russian-affiliated threat actors.
"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow
Russian hackers got caught doing that to George Soros, in an attempt to undermine a Russian anti-corruption activist (Alexei Navalny). They screwed up and leaked the original as well as the modified document, so it was possible to see exactly what they had changed.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.
Ambassador Sergei Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, then President-elect Trump’s son-in-law and confidant, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.
Isgrimnur wrote:"Ignorance of the law is no excuse." Especially for those who are supposed to be in charge of it.
Especially when they are filling out ethics forms which explicitly ask for this information. It's not ignorance, it's willful disobedience and omission.
It's more like running a stoplight, you know it's wrong but you're trying to get away with it. Just a thousand times worse.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!
Also: There are three ways to not tell the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Isgrimnur wrote:"Ignorance of the law is no excuse." Especially for those who are supposed to be in charge of it.
Especially when they are filling out ethics forms which explicitly ask for this information. It's not ignorance, it's willful disobedience and omission.
It's more like running a stoplight, you know it's wrong but you're trying to get away with it. Just a thousand times worse.
And instead of a stoplight, it's Putin and the FSB and what you know your campaign is already suspected of doing, and you've lied about it a dozen times already, and American democracy is at stake.
You can't make an omelet without breaking a few laws.
"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow
The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.
Though Prince had no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, he presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant, according to the officials, who did not identify the Russian.
YES. Please let this bullshit wash her evil ass away as well. We need a redeeming flood here, not just a trickle that selectively takes out the worst offenders.
REUTERS: Trump to set up 'war room' to repel attacks over Russia probe.
Trump's advisers are planning to establish a "war room" to combat mounting questions about communication between Russia and his presidential campaign before and after November's presidential election, while bringing new aides into the White House, administration officials and persons close to Trump told Reuters.
The strategic shake-up comes as Republicans in Washington increasingly have fretted that the probe, continued chaos in the West Wing and Trump's steady slide in opinion polls will derail the president's drive to reform healthcare, cut taxes and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.
Upon Trump’s return, the administration will add experienced political professionals, including Trump's former campaign manager, and possibly more lawyers to handle the Russia probe, which has gained new urgency since the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to head the investigation, the sources said.
[...]
A person in regular touch with the White House said it needed a different structure to focus on the “new reality” that there would be continued leaks to the media from the law enforcement and intelligence communities, leaks that have increased in frequency since Trump fired former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey on May 9.
“Since the firing of Comey, that really exposed the fact that the White House in its current structure ... is not prepared for really a one-front war, let alone a two-front war,” the person said. “They need to have a structure in place that allows them to stay focused” while “also truly fighting back on these attacks and these leaks.”
Anybody notice that Foxnews is starting to carry most of these stories. I get the feeling that everyone including Fox is turning on him at this point.
Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.
Because when I think about the words "Russia" and "war", it's totally about how unfair media and politicians are treating the president, and not how we have been in opposition almost every single day since 1917.
All through the Soviet era the communist line was that the West was a corrupt sham: rich fatcats exploited the system to rob from workers and keep them ignorant of how severely the structure was stacked against them.
In the Putin era, the claim has been more cynical: Western-style liberal democracy and reform won't work in Russia because liberal democracy in the West is essentially a lie.
Trump and his cronies act in every way like they believe all this too. Maybe that was the hook that brought them in: they looked at Russia and saw how well kleptocratic oligarchy does for you when you just straight-up own it.
Next up on the list for more information - Trump's personal lawyer:
Cohen confirmed to ABC News that House and Senate investigators have asked him “to provide information and testimony” about any contacts he had with people connected to the Russian government, but he said he has turned down the invitation.
“I declined the invitation to participate, as the request was poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered,” he told ABC News in an email Tuesday.
As a reminder:
Congressional investigators involved in the widening probe have already identified four Trump campaign advisers as people of interest because of their interactions with Russian officials. Only one of them, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, has received a subpoena for records. Flynn, who served briefly as Trump’s national security adviser, declined to provide them, citing his Fifth Amendment rights.
Lawmakers have also asked former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, informal adviser Roger Stone and former foreign policy adviser Carter Page to voluntarily hand over relevant records. All three men have said publicly they are producing records and cooperating with investigators.
It feels like every day more and more information is flowing, doesn't it? Looks like Jeff Sessions may have had another undisclosed meeting with the Russians.
In addition to congressional investigators, the FBI is seeking to determine the extent of interactions the Trump campaign team may have had with Russia's ambassador during the event as part of its broader counterintelligence investigation of Russian interference in the election.
The FBI is looking into whether there was an additional private meeting at the Mayflower the same day, sources said. Neither Hill nor FBI investigators have yet concluded whether a private meeting took place -- and acknowledge that it is possible any additional meeting was incidental.
I'm sure it was all incidental. Nothing to look at here.
If they decide to return the compounds but without diplomatic immunity, that could arguably be defensible, insofar as a building without immunity is far less useful to the Russians for shenanigans (or whatever the Russian word for shenanigans is).
What's really troubling is that they're willing to do this while they're under investigation for colluding with the Russians apparently without necessarily getting anything in return. Which is the kind of thing that makes you wonder whether the Russians really *do* have specific incriminating information / leverage with Trump.
As always, the comforting explanation is that Trump is just incredibly stupid.
It almost doesn't matter what the motive is at this point. Even under a microscope they feel they can act with impunity. And that seems to be true. That is horrifying itself.
malchior wrote:It almost doesn't matter what the motive is at this point. Even under a microscope they feel they can act with impunity. And that seems to be true. That is horrifying itself.
It'll be a hoot if everything else in that document plays out accurately and the only "unverifiable" fact is that one. Maybe this is the reason for Melania's dark moods? Maybe she knows the truth about the Mangerine's bedroom tastes and she's been wanting to gut him like a fish since that dossier was released.
Black Lives Matter
2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
It'll be a hoot if everything else in that document plays out accurately and the only "unverifiable" fact is that one. Maybe this is the reason for Melania's dark moods? Maybe she knows the truth about the Mangerine's bedroom tastes and she's been wanting to gut him like a fish since that dossier was released.
The odds that Melania didn't know well before then that Trump has been humping anything he can for years are approximately 0%.
El Guapo wrote:The odds that Melania didn't know well before then that Trump has been humping anything he can for years are approximately 0%.
You don't take that job without knowing ahead of time that he outsources a lot of the labor. It is really one of the perks.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
President Vladimir Putin insisted Thursday that the Russian state has never engaged in hacking and scoffed at allegations that hackers could influence the outcome of elections in the United States or Europe.
But the Russian leader admitted the possibility that some individual "patriotic" hackers could have mounted some attacks amid the current cold spell in Russia's relations with the West.
Speaking at a meeting with senior editors of leading international news agencies, Putin also alleged that some evidence pointing at Russian hackers' participation in attacks - he didn't specify which - could have been falsified in an attempt to smear Russia.
"I can imagine that some do it deliberately, staging a chain of attacks in such a way as to cast Russia as the origin of such an attack," Putin said. "Modern technologies allow that to be done quite easily."
U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Russia of hacking into Democratic Party emails, helping President Donald Trump's election victory, and the Congressional and FBI investigations into the Trump campaign's ties with Russia have shattered Moscow's hopes for a detente with Washington.
Putin said the "Russo-phobic hysteria" makes it "somewhat inconvenient to work with one another or even to talk."
"It's having an impact, and I'm afraid this is one of the goals of those who organize it are pursuing and they can fine-tune the public sentiments to their liking trying to establish an atmosphere that is going to prevent us from addressing common issues, say with regard to terrorism," the Russian leader said.
Putin predicted "this will end, sooner or later," adding that "we are patient, we know how to wait and we will wait."
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Paingod wrote:So the corrupt head of a corrupt government is declaring himself offended at allegations of corruption?
Whoa. Trump got Putin to follow his lead for a change.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
It'll be a hoot if everything else in that document plays out accurately and the only "unverifiable" fact is that one. Maybe this is the reason for Melania's dark moods? Maybe she knows the truth about the Mangerine's bedroom tastes and she's been wanting to gut him like a fish since that dossier was released.
I doubt Trump could be controlled by a sex tape. Given his history, he could just laugh it off.
What Putin has on Trump is likely criminal finances that will send him to jail and cost him and his kids everything.
Scoop20906 wrote:Interesting that the only senior White Official not being investigated at this point is Bannon. Or did that also change in the last 5 minutes.