Wake up. This is ALL about the GOP getting another for-life seat on the Supreme Court. Then dismantling voting rights, and securing permanent white power.
5
One thing we know: Hillary lost on her own. She was an inferior, and THE inferior candidate. She did not need any help from the Russians in order to lose the election. Losing the election was ALL on her.
3
Stone looks deceitful. Having seen his interview about his JFK book, loose facts and Stone are fellow travelers. But, researcher he is and doubtful Guccifer fooled him.
The 12 indictments are a fraud. The last time, a year ago, Mueller indicted 13 Russian businesses for hacking. He didn't dream that he would get a response from any of them. Guess what. One of those companies did respond and their lawyers from a New York firm demanded discovery. Mueller back stroked, he had no evidence on those businesses. I hope that at least one of those 12 persons responds and demands discovery. Mueller is trying to stay relevant. And in the process he is trying to keep all the puppets on a string. The puppets are the people that believe every word the fake news media spews out.
3
Stone, self serving bon vivant ,serving a self serving president . Impeachment is now the only solution. If Republicans were smart , they would do it before November & not wait till after the elections. But , I doubt if they have the courage. Impeach.
3
Trump, make all 2016 election docs public. Let the chips fall where they may.
3
The Smoking Gun, after communicating with Guccifer 2.0 as this report alleges, published online a 200-page Democratic opposition research paper on Donald Trump dated 12/19/15. It doesn't seem likely that Trump or Stone knew or was behind that, nor that the Russian motive was to favor Trump. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/dnc-hacker-leaks-trump-oppo...
2
It's a crime in all of our somewhat United States to knowingly receive stolen property. In this article, Mr. Stone appears to admit knowingly receiving what Guccifer (or whomever) stole. The defense appears to be that he believed the thief to be a Romanian. I could not find any reference to a defense based on the nationality of the thief. In addition, disappointment over the quality of the stolen property obtained is not a defense. Isn't it time to ask Gen. Flynn to reprise his chorus: "Lock (him) up"? The same analysis would appear true to all those attending the Trump Tower meeting(s?). Is King Donnie also a receiver of stolen property? We have to wait on that one but my bet is that he is. What was it that Gen. Flynn said?
7
With a traitor leading the traitorous GOP majority, one wonders when patriots will stand aside and take the traitors down.
Why should patriotic Americans in our security agencies watch as the White House traitor besmirks a protective system that has kept our shores relatively safe from powers who want us weak as snowflakes?
Stand aside.
12
Many Republicans have been scornful of the DNC and DCCC because those organizations were hacked by Russian intelligence. Like Trump, they blame weak security at the Democratic Party offices. However, I have long believed it is highly likely that Russia also hacked GOP organizations and individual Members of Congress -- but did not release the data stolen there. The data stolen from GOP offices were held by Russia for blackmail purposes. I cannot think of another explanation for the strange anti-American/pro-Russia behavior of many Republicans in Congress.
18
So, we are to "trust" the intelligence agencies with a terrible track record of unreliable, false misleading and agenda driven intelligence with no hard evidence and I see no mention of the DNC servers that I understand were NEVER inspected by an independent party or government agency. The media breathlessly reports on allegations that are not backed by hard evidence and rely on many inferences to fill in the gaps in the agenda of the story. But, the real crime - the conduct of the DNC and others made public - never gets serious attention. Instead of focusing on the failures of our "transparent" "democracy" these "allegations" divert attention to, at best, meddling that is typical and very velvet gloved compared with US meddling and direct interference in other governments. People need to start and keep asking why its is a priority for our media and deep state to keep Russian an enemy when any daily reading of the US media makes it clear that the US has been and is the biggest source of aggression, instability and warfare.
7
@Daniel Yakoubian - Interesting. But you're willing to trust Putin?
4
@Daniel Yakoubian what are the crimes of the DNC that need investigating? Benghazi? Hilaries e-mails? Do you want to impeach Hillary? Get a grip! Russians trolled the GOP, and the GOP bit line and sinker - the russkies wanted the idiot Trump in office, especially because they know dirt on him that makes him behave himself. Can you not see the forest for all the trees?
5
Why can they not connect trump to the russian hacking on July 27, 2016? He asked specifically for the Russians to find the emails & they went looking by illegal means to find them. This hacking should be considered on the same scale as the Watergate break-in. trump knew if he asked they would go looking because putin was running the whole show. Come on, Mr. Mueller, these indictments are good but can the next list have trump's name or campaign names or Americans in it?
4
Stone sounds like the type of guy who'd respond to an email of a Nigerian prince ...
I have no doubt that Russian intelligence was messing with our electoral process. That's what they do. And for that matter, our intelligence agencies and state department mess with elections overseas as well.
Still, I'm trying in vain to feel sorry that the nasty emails from the Clinton campaign and its advisors went public. First, they said a lot of really rotten stuff about their fellow Americans. Second, one would think that if you want to run the country you'd practice some cyber security yourselves--especially after being warned by the FBI of intrusion attempts.
Finally, why didn't Hillary campaign in Wisconsin and the Blue Wall states? Did the Russians hack and change her campaign schedule?
3
So the stain is spreading and Roger Stone is getting caught in this mess. Combine what's happening with what Trump said today against his own intelligence bureau, I think we're moving very close to treason.
4
The Russia (British, French, Italy, …) government(s) attempt to influence the USA election is just that - i.e. their opinion who they would like to see as the face of our county to meet the objectives of their country. We support “Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty” whose mission is to spread our ideology across the globe. We even have a long history of trying to influence other countries to follow the USA’s lead in freedom of religion, economic opportunity, tolerance of others, etc. We do this because our government believes that we are the Best. However, other countries believe that they are the Best.
So why do we get to decide what is Best for everyone else, when one of our guiding principles is to respect others.
Personally, I find it strange that some USA government official finds that I would be influenced by RT (Russian) television. I did not even know what RT was before it was reported. Also, I am not just a mindless drone that make decisions (e.g. who do I want for the next President of the USA) based on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media recommendations. I take a look at the candidates, their platforms, and then make a decision.
I hope that everyone stops wasting their time on the Russia probe and demand that Congress get to work to do something.
4
@Marc Lipnick how do you feel about Obama's birth certificate, since you are so clear-headed and not easily fooled..What about Pizza-gate? Did the Clintons kill Vince Foster? I am guessing you are down with all three of these fake news stories, but how about the simple fact that immigrants commit less crimes than american citizens - do you believe the facts on that, or do you prefer to fall for the fake news shows..How about global warming? Doubt that also?
5
Marc Lipnick, Congress does have a job to do. Impeach Trump, and jail those who provide aid and comfort to our enemies. You would make Benedict Arnold proud
2
I would like the NYT to tell us how they screen these people who post in comments, just as we want FB to do - is this guy a possible Russian troll, hired to cast doubt?
am I? Please NYT, tell us your screening process - I would love to know.
1
Imagine how different the election would have looked had Hillary campaigned in Wisconsin.
3
Of course, we should humbly fall for the convictions of guys like Strzok ?What evidence gathered by Mueller? So far, all I've seen from Mueller is a string of allegations (indictments), but no supporting material evidence.
“Meddled”, sounds more appropriate for one that has messed up the music in the car, yet better than “interfered with”, which sounds like a go at a maiden!
2
The Russians also hacked the RNC, but they didn't release the information.
5
I am scared Russia will keep expertly manipulating us and we'll keep during this critical issue into ammo for petty partisan bickering. They ran leftwing and rightwing ads, and they didn't stop after the election. They encouraged anti-Trump rallies after Trump won. It's infortunate that with so many communication and reference tools available to everyone that we should fall for these cheap tricks.
2
If you don't want to be embarrassed by Russian hackers publicizing your emails then you should avoid doing the things that would be embarrassing and NOT TRY TO HIDE THEM FROM FIOA. Just saying.
4
I feel sorry for Roger Stone. First, for his regrettable decision to get a tattoo of Richard M Nixon on his back (google it, it’s truly disgusting). But more importantly, for the jail time he will undoubtedly serve. It’s not going to be easy in there with aforementioned tattoo.
7
Trump , Stone , Bannon , Ryan , McConnell , Issa et. al. are the DEEP STATE !
11
The Russians meddled by revealing that the Clinton campaign and the DNC were meddling.
4
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” Trump, July 2016. It is now July 2018 with another election in November. Is Trump asking Putin in person this time?
13
Roger Stone, self proclaimed, “trickster.” But he’s mispronouncing the word, it’s pronounced, “Tray-tor,” with a long A
8
I find it had to believe that the Democrats are still crying over Hillary's lost. Now their excuse is that the Russian did it by hacking into and published files from the DNC and John Podesta.
Believe me those E-MAILs did not cost Hillary the election. She lost it on her own by simply being a terrible candidate whose ego had convinced her she couldn't lose. She was a terrible candidate and I am sure that a lot of AMerican voted for Trump rather then vote for Hillary.
I think Hillary would have lost even without the publication of the scurrilous E-MAILs. You could watch the DNC on TV and see for yourself that it was totally disorganized. TV showed you the dirty tricks HIllary played to defeat Bernie. We didn't need the Russian to show up these fact.
To continue to blame the Russian is stupid, Since even without the E-Mails and DNC data HIllary would have lost. She was a poor candidate and she bears the responsibility for her lost. Stop blaming the Russian - she would have lost without their help.
4
Traitor this, and prison that. I would be very surprised if anything happens to Trump. If they had the goods it would not take this long. Its funny how people are complimenting Muller, saying he is smarter than this or that. Its equally funny what people are saying about Trump. He is so stupid and he is going to prison. What I see here is people looking at celebrities and either worshiping them or hating them. All the opinions are way overblown. I feel like I am listening to some sports fans bragging about how their team is the best.
4
They cannot accept the fact that they had an extremely flawed candidate ,whom by the FBIs directive was borderline criminal of intention.Had zero zilch nada ,to do with wikileaks russians or anything else besides attempting to run an extremely clumsy campaign full of corruption.
5
It is pathetic that John Podesta, Colin Powell and other 'high value targets' were using gmail for business purposes, and also leaving unencrypted highly confidential information in their in boxes. Such poor information security left them highly vulnerable to a hack from anyone, including a foreign adversary.
When will our 'elites' begin to take information security seriously? Do we have to wait until both our election process and securities markets are tainted?
2
@J House When? Are you open to the possibility that "our 'elites'" have been breaching the information "security" of us and our fellow Americans, and they don't really want to give up that power to manipulate?
Am I wrong? Dealing with foreign agents about our elections is illegal. These American political operatives who communicated with, used information from foreigners, and now deny knowledge of their actions should, if I read the law correctly, have their day in court. Can we not rightfully call them traitors who practiced treason?
8
The tent needs to come down on this circus.
7
There is, of course, Julian Assange to speak to, about how everything got spread out over the Internet - but he is very hard for the FBI to find, though he's been in the same place for the past 5 years and hasn't left the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Oops, a clue for the FBI to help find him.
3
Unaware of links to Russia, but who else would it be?
2
@Me Tongue in cheek, perhaps? Can't think of a major corporation that would want to manipulate the elections for financial and political gains?
Romanian hackers are OK according to Stone? Whaaa? Stone needs to join his friends in prison for the remainder of his pathetic life. I believe that Rosenstein & Mueller and their pack of champion big dogs will hunt them all down soon. They will not be stopped.
5
I’m only half-kidding here, but where is Sen Joseph McCarthy when we need him? This time there really does seem to be an ex-Communist lurking under every bed!
6
"Dirty trickster" is just a euphemism for TRAITOR when it comes to Roger J. Stone Jr. who sought stolen files from Guccifer 2.0 (Russia, an enemy by their very actions).
Can't wait until Roger J. Stone Jr. is locked-up, so I can refer to him by his prisoner number.
10
So this is what draining the swamp and making America great again meant? To everyone who voted for this clown, I hope you're happy being put into Russia's back pocket.
10
Wait for the Soccergate 2.0 ...
While Putin thugs were monitoring any 4G beacon in Moscow, the Russian red light industry got hold of as many lewd images a Soccer World Cup can trigger. Sequels are encouraged, as a year-long visa will be given to the FanID happy holders.
Not that investigative journalists could be absent-minded enough to share an escort (because, yes, they work with different customers, in case you'd need to know), but what about those other mid-rich western stake-holders or decision makers ?! What about that city counselor ?! Or what about that mayor ?! Or that CEO's son in that City Bank, married, two kids ?!
Should our societies be more open, outing would be eagerly socially required for whore customers as well as for LGBTQI+ people.
Should we say that, regrettably, this not being the case, no government agency will require "sex evaders" to declare "lost assets" when coming back home ? Thus setting the stage for any type of further murky social engineering.
Russian frolicking comes at a price...
It is unsurprising, but deeply sad anyway, that there are so many people utterly consumed by the attainment of power and wealth that any and all moral constraints are swept aside. Seeking to gain the whole world is proof enough that the soul is absent.
1
With the recent indictments, Mueller's team was careful to say the hacking so far has not shown to have changed the outcome of the election. Obama, about three weeks after the election said to the the effect "they tried, but the results were not compromised." Of course, the consensus of the Russiangaters is that the results were changed.
I keep saying it, after having worked back in the day elections inside and outside the polls, the only people who can cheat and defraud and game an election are the people inside the voting system--and those are Americans not Russians. Thee biggest, and it was big, hack of the previous election was in the NY primaries, where about 110,000 voters had their status changed--done by Americans Techniques such voter database scrubs are done by administrators within the systems. For example, the Russians could not pull off caging. Or now, where we see that Crowley deliberately stayed on the ballot for the general election to undermine AOC. Crowley is not Russian.
So as everyone here knows, the FBI said all the Wiki leaked docs were NOT altered and were correct in all detail, which is very interesting since it put Podesta in an interesting position.
3
Leftists' newfound unconditional trust for alphabet soup agencies is quite a thing to behold. If only they would become just as inquisitive when it comes to seeking hard proof and evidence. Has anyone actually read the DHS report on the matter (don't bother responding if you haven't, really)? I'd put it at the intersection of comedy and fan fiction, right up there with the legendary "dossier" paid for by the DNC. It's almost as if these cyberattacks are poised to become the new Iraq WMD meme. Anything that galvanizes the confirmation bias I guess.
2
More false equivalency.
7
What about the RNC hacking? Who stopped that from creating the havoc that the DNC hacking did? Something does not add up here.
3
Not aware of any “RNC hacking”.
Maybe the RNC emails were boring?
1
All of this bothers me very much. But, the failure of educated, supposedly savvy, news analysts and reporters to report a full and unsensationalist news spectrum was the crux of Mr. Trump's advantage, at the final moment, on election day. The fact that Trump was allowed to drive the headlines kept him at the top of the news feed and in the minds of voters. Rather than lead with the facts regarding national and international need and global fragility due to global warming, the sensations that led were Trump's bloopers, follies, insults, and anger stoking epithets. Almost without exception, Republicans are in cahoots with the agenda of destroying the two party system and the US government. Yet, the fourth estate does not investigate and report on the real reasons behind their drive to destroy. Please help us understand! During 2016 election cycle even PBS News just regurgitated the Trump feed. Now they are uneven, sometimes ok, but lacking depth and courage. Others also need to dig deeper and challenge the agenda of the Republican juggernaut. Trust me, the abortion and contraceptive question does not drive this machine. Are the reporters from ivy league schools so cushioned from the nitty gritty real world that they can't tell what is really important? Are there no brave critical thinkers out there??? Are reporters just lazy? Or are they afraid?
3
This all happened under the Obama administration.
5
...and was uncovered just now! The question is: how would Obama have handled the case: I doubt he would shake Putin‘s hand and brag about his very own country‘s institutions who (in careful and lawful investigation) needed to lengthily find out. Trump must be impeached!
3
911 happened under Bush so what's your point. Obama had bin Laden killed, so what's my point. besides don't forget McConnell didn't want to join a bipartisan statement announcing and condemning the interference campaign from Russia. Obama didn't do enough? just like Obama didn't push for Garland enough too.
5
according to the media Russia spent $95000 in bitcoin to meddle in the election, $95000. . that's what Mueller would want you believe is all it takes to turn an election in America.
I'm sorry, but that is not what I'd expect to hear from a country attempting to "hack America", the most powerful nation the world has ever known. that type of money is what is paid to online fake story writers in order to make ad money, all over the globe not just Russia.
Julian Assange, who has never been proven to be a liar or release false information, categorically denied the Russians had anything to do with Podesta's hacked email account. As he stated "Russians didn't hack Podesta, a 14 year old could've hacked him: his password was "password".
The most damning revelations I've read about are the FBI bias and planting of agents into Trump's campaign. Those 12 Russians named and there whole $95000 in bitcoin won't ever see a court room, and this ongoing investigation has cost taxpayers millions. No Americans have been linked to Russians criminally, much less President Trump. Once the FBI text of biased came out Mueller wrapped it all up, no matter what he uncovered it would easily be tainted by that bias. He's not bringing anyone else to court. It's over, and yes, we're footing the bill for this fiasco.
3
I can’t believe people here are standing up for a weasel like Assange
5
The "password was password" thing is largely misunderstood. Some IT person set this as a temporary password for a new computer for him. It is likely that when he first logged into the computer, he was required to change his password. Podesta should have known better than to fall for the phishing attempt, but some of the blame can be shared by an IT person who confused the words "legitimate" and "illegitimate".
2
It does make you wonder why the Russians thought it was in their own best interest to go after the Democrats and help the Republicans.
2
They ran ads with extreme left and extreme right themes. They supported Trump, Sanders, and the Green party candidate because they had all criticized American institutions and/or the validity of the election. They have their dream come true in a president who won yet still carries on condemning the elections.
I suspect their goal is to destabilize America. They don't care about particular people or parties.
5
Inviting a hacker to download or share private data is incitement to theft. It it not just a 'dirty trick', Mr. Stone, it is a crime. AKA conspiracy to commit a felony. Romania, Russia, China, or the big kid in the basement next door does not matter. Publishing stolen info is one thing, but the act of stealing it is another.
Whether you are Stone or Trump, calling for hackers to steal and knowingly interacting with 'anonymous' hackers who have stolen is not protected by the First Amendment. The NYTimes (or even Fox News) can claim publishing in the public interest, but political parties and their minions and candidates must not be allowed to deal in stolen goods.
8
And that's why Nixon had to resign. His campaign was benefitting from all kinds of dirty tricks and Nixon covered it up.
Stone knows that Watergate was a crime -- both the act AND the cover-up by the President whose campaign benefitted.
Nixon didn't need his campaign to break into the Watergate -- Nixon won by a huge margin. No matter. The question was never "Did Nixon win thanks to the help his campaign got from the illegal actions that Nixon covered up?" Americans already KNEW that Nixon would have won even if his men hadn't condoned breaking into the Watergate. It doesn't matter whether a candidate could have won without being helped by criminals if that campaign chose to benefit from criminal acts and cover that up.
But somehow the Trump defenders are now claiming that unless there is proof that Trump would not have won without Russia's help, any criminal actions are irrelevant. Wrong. And Watergate proves how wrong that is. Nixon's huge winning margin -- in both the Electoral College and the popular vote (60%!) did not exonerate him from wrong-doing.
3
Crime is crime. And no one is above the law. Not even Donald’s minions.
2
If the Russians managed to get into voting registries you can be sure the midterms will be rigged. Just change a bunch of names on the registry after the election and Trump will declare these votes as coming from illegal immigrants as he did in 2016. A recount will show people were registered who are not citizens and people voted who were not registered
2
"Mr. Stranahan said in a video message over the weekend that he did not know of ties between Guccifer and Russian intelligence and is not convinced even now."
Really? But why are you working for Putin (I suspect that Sputnik is a propaganda tool for the Russian government) now, Mr. Stranahan?
If the Americans who were in contact with Guccifer 2.0 didn't know that they were dealing with a foreign adversary in 2016, they sure as heck don't appear to be bothered to find that out in 2018.
So even if they weren't knowingly conspiring with the Russians to subvert American democracy at the time of the elections, one has to believe that they would have willingly done so even if they were hip to that fact.
1
"I’m on the Russian payroll now. When you work at Sputnik you’re being paid by the Russians,” Lee Stranahan, who served as a Breitbart investigative reporter, told The Atlantic.
“That’s what it is. I don’t have any qualms about it. Nothing about it really affects my position on stuff that I’ve had for years now.'”
From a 4-06-17 Joe Concha piece in The Hill.
2
President Obama knew of this YET did NOTHING!!
Was he overly confident the Russians could NOT have an impact on our electoral process OR did he just put too much faith in HRC?
5
President Obama put sanctions on Russia and probably directed the gov't to come up with plans for the next president to stop further interference.
7
"and probably directed"
That's a VOTE of confidence!!
Here is what I do not understand. Gucciffer 2.0 spread a bunch of bias information. However, what is the difference between Russian propaganda and opposition research. Both parties spread negative information about their opponents, a form of propaganda (i.e., According to the Google dictionary: "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view"). The law that was broken was unlawfully breaking into the DNC server, not the the leak of information (i.e., Journalist are always trying to obtain confidential and sometimes classified information and they leak this information). There is no proof that the Russians tried to or changed any ballots at the voting booth. Therefore, it appears to me that the issue is about what propaganda should be allowed to be published.
A final point: I lived in Moscow during their 2012 election and observed the allowed demonstrations. After the elections. Putin authorized an investigation. One of the findings of the investigation was that Western NGOs were funding some of the organizations that supported the demonstrators. Therefore Western NGOs were outlawed. If Putin would have an honest conversation, he would say what is the difference between NGOs interfering with Russian election campaign process and Russian propaganda use in the USA election campaign process. Outside of illegally breaking into the DNC server, I do not see much difference.
1
Hypocrisy takes a lot less letters to type but says exactly the same thing. If ever there was the need for a new emoticon, it would be now for that word for it’s everywhere by everyone today.
1
Federal law makes it a crime for any person to "solicit, accept or receive" a contribution or "anything of value" from a foreign person for a U.S. political campaign or "for the purpose of influencing any election for federal office."
4
Consider this scenario: In July 2016, Russian hackers successfully gained access to our air traffic control system and our Eastern seaboard energy grid. That would constitute an attack on our country wouldn't it? Especially if they successfully sent those codes for access to someone who posted them online for everyone to use.
Just because planes didn't crash or power didn't go out doesn't mean it wouldn't have been addressed.
Because this attack had to do with emails from one party and not the other is the wrong way to see this. What can be used against one party can and will be used against the other eventually. Nobody died and no blood was shed; does it always take a body count to get our attention? This isn't a high school prank, it's targeted interference. If we're blind to that fact, this democracy at even greater risk that we think.
1
Western intelligence officers are at greater risk now than ever before since the Cold War. At their head is a president who, for whatever reason, refuses to trust them, and is forcing the agencies to release sensitive information that otherwise would not be released in order to persuade politicians and the public. (That this is even in the public domain shows the angst among the agencies.) This is now about democracy's survival, and America has a president whose patriotism is in some doubt.
The happenings are a clear vindication of the thesis in A Study of History by Arnold J. Toynbee.
Author's goal was to trace the development and decay of world civilizations detailing the stages through which they all pass: genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and disintegration.
Toynbee see the breakdown of civilizations as caused by attacks from deterioration of the "Creative Minority", which eventually ceases to be creative and degenerates into merely a "Dominant Minority".
He argues that creative minorities deteriorate due to a worship of their "former self," by which they become prideful and fail adequately to address the next challenge they face. The final breakdown results in "positive acts of creation;" the dominant minority seeks to create a Universal state to preserve its power and influence.
The current cyber attack is a remarkable confirmation of Arnold Toynbee's claim that the decline of our civilization means it will be attacked by Barbarian war-bands until it is destroyed. It may be a matter of time before the Western world, will succumb to this kind of external attack. The result will be the final extinction of Western Civilization, along with its wealth and power.
2
All of this bothers me very much. But, the failure of educated, supposedly savvy, news analysts and reporters to report a full and unsensationalist news spectrum was the crux of Mr. Trump's advantage, at the final moment, on election day. The fact that Trump was allowed to drive the headlines kept him at the top of the news feed and in the minds of voters. Rather than lead with the facts regarding national and international need and global fragility due to global warming, the sensations that led were Trump's bloopers, follies, insults, and anger stoking epithets. Almost without exception, Republicans are in cahoots with the agenda of destroying the two party system and the US government. Yet, the third estate does not investigate and report on the real reasons behind their drive to destroy. Please help us understand! During 2016 election cycle even PBS News just regurgitated the Trump feed. Now they are uneven, sometimes ok, but lacking depth and courage. Others also need to dig deeper and challenge the agenda of the Republican juggernaut. Trust me, the abortion and contraceptive question does not drive this machine. Are the reporters from ivy league schools so cushioned from the nitty gritty real world that they can't tell what is really important? Are there no brave critical thinkers out there??? Are reporters just lazy? Or are they afraid?
2
Why was Wikileaks charged? According to emails presented in the article, they actively sought to 'undermine' the election. So, why no charges against them?
Because they’re not Russian so it doesn’t help Mueller try and build the case Trump colluded with Russia. Remember the whole point of this, yulia, that’s all that matters to some and it’s hardly about America’s safety.
1
It’s not over yet. Maybe still coming. I agree Assange should be charged and extradited.
1
I believe everything. Please help remove all doubt by allowing the server where the hacks occurred to be examined.
I only ask this due to the arrest of Imran Awan, who was suspected of selling data to foreign agents.
The servers where the hacks occurred need to be examined so that there is no lingering questions.
Just to be clear, this doesn't make it better:
“I originally thought he was a Romanian hacker because that’s what he claimed to be,” Mr. Stone said.
So, he thought he was getting and using stolen documents from a Romanian criminal, not a Russian agent. And it's not just Stone. Others throughout the Republican establishment were likewise willing to conspire with this supposed East European hacker.
Republican voters really need to decide which they prefer: America and the rule of law on one side, or their party's politicians and operatives on the other.
5
But wait--there's a newsflash just in: "Trump asks Hitler if he killed Jews".. "Trump asks Stalin if he guided The Terror".. These weighty matters are settled, since "all I can do is ask the question."
3
Hillary was a worthless candidate. Whether Wikileaks or Russian hackers, where do we send the 'thank you' cards?
2
Roger Stone is claiming innocence. Whether the source on the other side was Romanian or Russian, is immaterial. There was some form of contact. The intent and objective is clear. There should have been an immediate call or report to the FBI. Why did that not happen?
With the indictment of the 12 Russian intelligence officers, the Special Counsel investigations continue. In the coming days, what else will there be? We are now reading the remaining pages of the James Hadley Chase novel.
1
When will we begin to hold to account the administration that was in office while all this was taking place? Surely if it's treasonous activity on the part of the current President's supporters, then it was dereliction of duty on the part of the previous administration, including the then Commander in Chief. Why did Obama allow this to happen? And why no outrage at him and the responsible parties?
2
Unless everyone who was hacked has installed new hardware and software, the russians will continue to have access to their data. Fix the Problem.
2
What few people seem to be considering here is that any illegal activity that Mueller's team finds throughout the course of this investigation is prosecutable, either at the Federal or state-level, if it is referred. What we already know about Trump's sordid business history may be the tip of the iceberg. This hacking job has simply open the door for the FBI, revealing the real crimes of Trump and his henchmen, such as money laundering. I don't think the use of information from the DNC hack is what will take down this Administration.
5
"We wouldn't have gotten caught because we're professionals." Well, you have gotten caught because we have our own professionals and it is irrefutably tracked back to Putin and Russia and there is Our President, consoling and believing Putin over our intelligence and every one of our people who've been protecting us and our country for a long time. Trump is now giving aid and comfort and abetting the enemy. That translates to treasons.
8
Considering the information about Wikileaks involvement & participation in the Russian operation, when will we see anindictment of Assange. He was a willing & eager player whose motivations seem somehow personal. As a British citizen his "meddling" is just as criminal as the Russians.
4
I was also fooled about Guccifer 2.0 when I read about a year ago that he was a Romanian who would go to Russia where he could not be extradited to the United States. I am beginning to loose faith in stories having to do with foreigners meddling in our elections.
When history looks back, they will see that the willing complicity of the news media to spread the vicious and carefully curated DNC e-mails was appalling. And that includes the NY Times.
If the journalists in France had been willing to put aside their integrity the way the NY Times and other supposedly "liberal" journalists were when Macron's e-mails were hacked, Putin would have right wing LePen doing his bidding in France.
7
Roger Stone should join the defendants in what today became nakedly apparent as Team Trump treason.
6
I've been thinking for some time that Trump has a personality disorder - narcissism combined with behavioral personality disorder; though I'm not a clinician. Now, I'm thinking that he's either stupid (believe to be true) or believes that Putin is his hero (true?). Either way, I wish that Mueller would get his investigation completed and move forward. Not a fan of Pence and his religious zeal, but one can stop him from combining church and state. Not sure what can be done to stop Trump and his adoration of Putin.
7
I believe that Russians Hacked Hillary's emails & that Wikileaks disseminated the info that was revealed. I also, think we should all be grateful the Russians & Wikileaks.
They have done us a service by giving us revelations about what was being done by the Clinton campaign & the
DNC. This was information that Americans deserved to
have. & You at the NY Times know that you would be congratulating hacking Russians & Julian Asange if the material they uncovered concerned top Republicans.
4
All of this is utter nonsense and you are creating trouble between the US and a nuclear power.
OK, you liked Hillary, we all know that. But she lost in part because she made that remark about the "deplorables".
The Russians did not force her to make that remark.
1
Hillary was right. Trump's willfully ignorant bigoted supporters are deplorable.
5
"But she lost in part because she made that remark about the "deplorables".
I seriously doubt that remark lost her 1 vote and probably gained her a few.
Google; Kris Kobach/Operation Crosscheck / Greg Palast for the primary reason drumpf is now our prezidunce.
3
The cat is out of the bag despite the repeated claims by the pathological liar. The investigation is far from “witch hunt” as claimed by con Don. He owes his election to Vladimir the thug. Despite all the exposure, the con man is now meeting with Vlad on plotting how to derail democracy during midterm and 2020 election. Not sure what else to call it - treason is the term for it. It is a sad time for,our great nation.
10
Politics has always been a dirty game. Feigning shock because your candidate lost is a hoot.
3
Former U.S. National Security Administration Technical Director William Binney on July 13 declared the document to be “a fabrication,” after having conducted a quick review of Mueller’s indictment, stating: “The only actual forensic investigations performed on available data regarding ‘hacks’ of the DNC are independent investigations assessed and approved by a group of us at the Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS),” Binney stated.
“The FBI never even bothered to examine the DNC computers, relying instead on the DNC and Atlantic Council cyber contractor CrowdStrike for its evidence. Our analysis demonstrated that the ‘Guccifer 2.0’ and ‘DCLeaks’ personas were created inside the United States. Our analysis also fully demonstrated that the transfer of the information was consistent with a download to a thumb drive, not transmission over the internet.
“Separate and apart from the VIPS analysis, former CIA intelligence officer Ray McGovern and I have consistently said that available data surrounding charges regarding ‘Russian hacking’ suggest that the CIA’s Vault 7 Cyber weapons arsenal enabling false attribution and ‘tell-tale’ signs in Cyrillic and other ‘obfuscation’ may be at work....” Binney said.
5
I've read about this before. As stated, it's very important, and gets zero attention from the media.
The qualifications of the VIPS group alone--people whoh ran things at NSA--should at least have generated an assessment of their findings.
3
Crowdstrike, co-founded by Moscow-born Russian Dmitri Alperovitch.
Irony?
2
It should be blatantly obvious to even the willfully stupid that Stone, Stranahan and Breitbart are willing stooges of Russia. Stop denying it. Only makes it worse
9
What is especially disturbing in this article is the amount of contact that occurred in the summer and fall of 2016 between journalists looking for anti-Hillary scoops and the Russian cutouts, Guccifer 2.0 and later Julian Assange's Wikileaks.
As we know, Sean Hannity interviewed Assange a number of times and there were many in the press who seemed to have advance knowledge of the Wikileaks' document dumps.
The news media's handling of Wikileaks' daily October 2016 releases (beginning on the day of the Access Hollywood tape release) of the stolen Podesta and DNC emails was shameful.
As NBC's Chuck Todd noted, there was lot of inside help given to Wikileaks in their efforts. He stated there was a remarkable knowledge of the American media "ecosystem" among those involved in the daily document dumps. The only question is whether the assistance given to Wikileaks in publicizing and disseminating the stolen materials was unwitting or not.
As many critics noted, many of the individual emails were not authenticated by the news media before being released and some were later shown to have been doctored. The emails brought out the worst in journalism, with the hacking victims being mocked and ridiculed on the air for their religious beliefs and pasta recipes, among other things.
Finally, as we know now, the French media, when confronted with the same ethical decision prior to their 2017 election, refused to release the Wikileaks documents on the grounds that they were stolen.
13
Well, the question is: was it fair for the French media to conceal the info from the public if it could affect their choice? Doesn't that amount to misleading the public?
It is confounding that many people who were so eager to believe anything at all about Hillary, no matter how absurd, are now finding it so very difficult to credit the facts established in a very detailed, well-documented indictment.
We must expand the definition of "gullibility" to encompass it.
19
So, let me get this straight. Think about the context of the following and the conclusion you would draw on whether you are dealing with a Romanian individual, or a foreign intelligence
Gucifer asks what he (Roger Stone) thinks about a Democratic voter model, and Roger replies it is a standard model.
Now, ask the Question: Would you think it is more probable you are dealing with an Individual Romanian, or a Foreign government organization.
I don't know many, or any, Romanian individual who would be able to talk about voter models.
It has to be an organization he is talking to, and he has to know it based on the question and subject matter that was raised.
Unless you believe there is an individual Romanian out there that knows about American voter models.
2
Why not? I don't see a lot of Americans who can talk about the theory of relativity, but I still believe there are such people in America
Here's where it all gets murky for me:
The DNC and the Clinton campaign paid for someone (Steele) to get information supposedly gathered by Russian intelligence on Trump--and that's OK. The focus is on what they presumably found.
Wikileaks leaks information hacked by Russian intelligence that reflects badly on the DNC /Clinton campaign, and that's an attack on our political system.
11
Actually, it was a Republican rival who first contracted with Fusion GPS to do opposition research on Trump. When Trump won the nomination, this rival dropped funding for the research and then the Clinton campaign resumed it.
The difference is that paid opposition research is normal. A candidate or campaign pays a contractor to conduct research. The contractor delivers his or her findings, presumably gathered through legal means, and that's that.
The DNC/DCCC/Clinton hacks were not opposition research. First, the information was stolen. Laws were broken to obtain it. Second, they were conducted by a state actor, not a third-party research firm. Third, they were not a disclosed campaign expense. That means that the efforts made toward the benefit of the Trump campaign were de facto campaign contributions, and those contributions were illegal on many different fronts.
This is the best nutshell summary I can offer in response to your question.
24
Ron F. says: "The difference is that paid opposition research is normal. "
That may be true if all involved are American citizens.
However, Steele is not an American citizen...and his Russian informants are not American citizens.
If Mueller found evidence that anyone involved with the Trump campaign was paying Guccifer 2.0 for the DNC e-mails, what do think would happen?
The media would be salivating over the proof of "treason".
"Paid opposition research" from the former KGB and its operatives, funneled through a foreign spy. That's a joke, right?
Why did they use cutouts if this was all ok?
The Republicans worked with North Vietnam to delay a peace treaty so Nixon could get elected. The Republicans worked with Iran to delay releasing the hostages and later for money to run the Contras in Nicaragua (Oliver North). The Republicans cooperated in installing a Russian agent as President of the United States. These people cheat to win.
39
But WikiLeaks’ administrators, including Julian Assange, its founder, did not know what was in the trove — they were simply seeking anything that would widen the divisions inside the party between supporters of Hillary Clinton and those of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who had also sought the nomination.
Strange we don't see Assange hauled up before some investigation committee. Or is he still hold up is some foreign embassy someplace? Between this and indicting untouchables in Russia, this whole thing makes it seem like justice is such a farce.
2
This sounds like Watergate all over again, but a 21st century version that was orchestrated by at least one other country. Only this time the bugging worked! The "cops" did not turn up in time to catch them in the act, as in Watergate.
So where were the "internet cops"? Out to lunch I guess.
3
That so many Republicans ignore or impugn revelations like these, coming from Mueller's investigations, makes it incredibly suspicious that many Republicans are themselves indictable for some of the same crimes Roger Stone is apparently involved in. Why else would key FBI and other justice department officials be pilloried as happened to Strzok, Rosenstein and other patriotic Americans trying to preserve our democracy?
18
Hopefully Assange will eventually be able to be held accountable for his role in this.
9
"They showed dexterity in navigating their way through the national political debate and an increasingly sophisticated understanding of American electoral politics."
Perhaps what this truly shows is the degraded and simplistic state of American electoral politics.
11
Multiple commenters on here pushing a couple of angles: (1) the real story is the Dem attempt to "rig" the primary against Sanders, otherwise the leak wouldn't have mattered and (2) what Russia did is akin to "marketing".
One is a storyline that further divides and the other attacks the idea of objective & demonstrable truth or that the special counsel is a valid arbiter of it.
6
"Trump right now would have his team of lawyers suing everybody for what he calls fake news."
How about sticking with facts and leaving aside speculations of what Trump WOULD have done?
Do you have any precedent of Trump suing anyone? It is just made up, isn't it?
4
Do you really not read any actual news? Trump's decades of lawsuits are well documented.
1
So .. what was the impact ?
I get it --- they stole files and we found out things that the DEM's did not want us to know. Did they take anything else from anyone else ? Did they change votes in any elections ?
We seem to be working on the premiss that all of these leaks/documents went through Trumps hands ... They did not. Are we to believe that the NYT would not have used the information had it been sent directly to them? How about if it was information about Trump?
I'm not sure how we stop or protect from this -- except to understand many countries will do this -- and many more individuals. But -- we understood this prior to the election.
Electronic documents are not secure.
One hopes the special council has more information ---
1
If it wasn’t illegal, then why the indictments?
My fear is that voters have become numb to this attack by the deliberate and constant barrage of false information from Trump, the GOP, Fox and the whole slew of right wing media. If the voters give a pass on this the chances of protecting our system of elections become narrow and limited to the work of those willing to keep exposing the fraud. But if elections are controlled by cyber attacks and malicious propaganda what can we hope for? This will only lead to more indifference and a stronger kleptocracy. This is a key moment in our constitutional form of government. The press can not sit by or be lulled into false equivalency. The very act of diminishing the validity of reporting by a constant attack of "fake news" by our President should be warning enough of the danger involved.
5
Republicans were so desperate to upset Secretary Clinton and get Trump elected that they would have made a pact with anyone to get ahead. The fact that the devil here was Russian is really inconsequential. The devils henchmen included Roger Stone and the many others who have been charged with crimes and many others who will likely follow.
The fact that American politics and elections has fallen to such a low level including such blatant criminal activity (not that dirty tricks were not popular before) is disappointing to say the least. The electoral system deserves a thorough house-cleaning to get rid of the criminals and try to put supposedly free and fair elections back on firmer footing. If not, America deserves the second-class undemocratic system that it is headed for now. You can do better.
Please think carefully before you vote in November. Know who and what you are voting for.
3
Roger Stone's defense here seems to be that he didn't know the stolen files came from Russia - he thought Guccifer was Romanian. Like that makes a difference? Trump and his closest associates had no qualms at all about using illegally obtained intel. It would be illegal even if the hackers were American.
17
The cynical response of some to this episode brilliantly illuminates some dark human nature. For those focusing on the veracity of information stolen stolen from DNC sources, please realize you are missing the entire point. Also realize that your tendency to engage in confirmation bias is probably the cause.
The Constitution guarantees citizens the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure of their personal papers. That is a limitation on the government of the U.S. It is also illegal to steal those items or to traffic in said stolen items. Hopefully it does not require extensive discussion to apply these principles to the Gucifer theft. If the government of the United States and its citizens are so limited, why on earth should the Russian government and citizens get a pass on American outrage?
The only explanation I see is confirmation bias. Check your priorities people. We were attacked by a hostile foreign power. Even if your political tribe benefited, how savory is that poison fruit? It could be the death of your nation.
28
it would be valid argument, if there was no Sterling case when the guy was punished for his remarks in private conversation that was taped secretly. Apparently, privacy is not sacred cow in America any more.
I look forward to Mueller’s indictment of Christopher Steele (a British National) and his Russian informants. These foreign intelligence operatives were aggressively engaged in meddling/interfering in the 2016 election with a clear intent to tilt the election to Hillary Clinton by disparaging Donald Trump. These foreign actors showed an incredible mastery of the American electoral system in their brazen attempt to rig the election.
6
As usual many assertions; no evidence. The Russians did this , did that , US intelligence say so but where’s the beef (evidence ?)
5
With the big bucks going into the NSA, it's surprising that we would t have evidence already.
The GRU is just getting started. Trump has given them the green light to help Republicans and will do everything in his power to assist Russia. Putin rubbed his face in the dirt showing up an hour late to their meeting, knowing that Trump would be more anxious to please than ever. It is over.
8
To believe that the NSA-CIA is not engaged in similar activities with China and Russian, among others, is absurd. This is not to diminish what hackers are up to these days, but let's remember we've been meddling in foreign elections since 1948.
This is much about nothing. It changed nothing, just revealed the obvious: the DNC was/is as corrupt as any other deep-swamp political cohort--to include the RNC--just ask Bernie.
8
Actually, the Russians didn't really have to do much of anything. The man lost by 3 million votes - not a couple of hundred thousand but 3 MILLION - and we proclaim ourselves, to anyone dimwitted enough to listen, a democracy - and many of us actually believe that we are. Check the figures on Senatorial representation between say CA and WY, voter suppression in the states of stupid and then, of course, the incredible nonsense that corporations have religious & political feelings and opinions - add to that lobbyists and few paltry limits on scamming the system with wads of money (He's already collected 88 million for 2020) - kinda makes you hanker after the days of Divine Right Monarchy.
God I'm glad I'm very old!
33
3 million votes, all from Cali-for-nia. Outside of that communist state Trump won the popular vote. All of it. That means the rest of America is Republican. Love it.
2
Let’s remember who was President when this was taking place.
7
Let's also remember that Mitch McConnell refused that president's overture to issue a bipartisan public statement about what was going on, and that this same president enacted penalties against the perpetrators--something that our current president consistently fails to do.
9
bernie was never a Democrat. He just borrowed the label to run. Why should we favor him?
2
Let's remember which party was the majority in congress when this was taking place. That is the more apt clue.
11
I’ll try. So far there has been ZERO evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. ZERO. If the Russians did mettle in our election, and they likely did, this is nothing new... they’ve been doing it for the better part of 100 years, 99% in favor of the Democrats. The Chinese do it as well. As does the US to them. And in the case of he Obama admin, we actually had the US meddling in the election of an ally, Israel, to put a liberal government in place to appease our enemies. The difference this time is that it is being used by the losing campaign as justification for her loss. And it is being used by rogue FBI, Intelligence and DoJ leadership to justify the spying on a political opponent and then a President-elect, for the purposes of affecting the outcome of our own election (i.e. domestic election meddling) and worse yet, to topple a Constitutionally-elected President. Get it?
5
What exactly is your standard for what counts as evidence if you think that the amount currently known to the public is "zero"? Evidence is not synonymous with "definitive proof," though it seems we are indeed inching toward the latter. There is mounds of evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russia. I won't recite it here because it's publicly available, abundant, and easy to find.
1
And what did Guccifer share? Why it was the truth about how the DNC and Hillary conspired to cheat the Bernie Bros out of the nomination! If you don't want your dirty laundry aired it is best not to generate it in the first place.
Usually getting th truth out is considered a public service. Isn't this what the left is always trying to accomplish? Wonder why they are so against it now?
8
What did Roger Stone , Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump, Don , Jr., ,Eric
Trump , Jared Kushner, KellyAnne Conway, Paul Manafort and Jeff Sessions know and when did they know it about Guccifer 2.0 hacking and meddling in the 2016 American Presidential campaign and election?
7
It doesn’t matter if Stone thought Guccifer 2.0 was a Romanian hacker, his actions still amount to aiding and abetting a foreign entity to interfere with our election.
Lock him up!
15
As someone who grew up with all the thrills, chills, and heartache (read: assassinations) of the sixes, matured during the socital disillusionment of Nixon's trifecta (Vietnam's end/Watergate/decade long rolling recession) of the seventies, the white washed Regan eighties, recovery and then Monica-ed Clinton nineties, the new world order of 9/11, followed by Obama's slow and steady recovery from W's Iraq mortgage meltdown...non of this has tested us like we are being tested today.
This is real. This is not a drill. And the two of them are sitting alone, talking...
If it weren't for the efforts of journalist at the NYTs, and other brave journalists of the Forth Estate, it is hard to imagine Mr. Mueller would still be able to be so hard at it. Your work, and the work of fellow honest news journalists, is protecting his - and our democracys - flank.
Don't stop until all the truths are learned.
23
So Breitbart, Buzzfeed, Wall Street Journal, and others easily duped by the Russians. Journalism Schools - develop new levels of truth verification for 21st century technology.
4
When it comes to fairness in journalism, how does this story warrant a photo of Roger Stone who, as far as we know, was not aware of any links between Guccifer and Russia?
What we have here is disturbing and distressing evidence of Russian hacking in an effort to disrupt the election. And it makes no difference whether they hacked into a Democratic party's database or a Republican or Independent repository.
Putting aside for a moment that Mueller's investigation is not complete and we may yet see evidence of collusion or of aiding and abetting (as David Leonhardt in a fit of pure speculation wrote this morning) isn't the bigger story what the Obama Administration did about all this other than President Obama's private rebuke to Putin when he apparently said "Cut it out?"
Let us hope, for the sake of our country, that we never see the day that reveals collusion by a Presidential candidate or his campaign with a foreign power and let us hope that Russia and China are the last two countries with whom any such candidate would have any truck.
That said, it is unseemly that many so-called "journalists" on the left-wing salivate at the prospect that Mueller will pull a Perry Mason on Trump.
And equally unsavory that the right-wing yappers on cable channels and talk shows match the left-wingers, word for word, denial for any accusation, dismissal for honest questioning, and hate for hate?
The New York Times can do better than innuendo like this.
We all can do better.
7
if there is something crummy going on in American politics, and Republicans are in any way on the scene, you can bet Stone will have his fingers in it somehow. so it has been for decades.
on a side note, Stone's (former) wife was partners with longtime GOP op Charlie Black and Paul "Hoosegow" Manafort in a lobbying and government relations shop in Arlington, VA in the 80s.
"Those figures included Roger J. Stone Jr., the longtime Trump friend who exchanged messages with Guccifer during the campaign but said in an interview on Saturday that he did not believe at the time that Russian state actors were behind it. “I originally thought he was a Romanian hacker because that’s what he claimed to be,” Mr. Stone said.
Uh, that's still illegal, Roger.
13
:Putin knew. He knows everything that goes on in the Russian government. Ask Roger Stone!
2
Talking to my Republican friends and Trump supporters, they show absolutely NO signs of objections to the fact that other foreign governments ( such as Russia, Saudis etc.) interfered with our elections as long as their agenda moves forward.
They would have zero problem with using the same methods to stay in power. Trump is “ one” person but it seems he is part of a well organized mafia / cult.
Have you seen/heard the GOP object to Russians interference???? How about ANY objections to billions of dollars of support by foreign government to help his election ( as reported by NYT)???? Trump is an easy target for criticism, but he is just the figure head.
11
Recommend Russian Roulette by Isikoff and Corn. It's debatable whether Obama did enough or whether, had he done more, anyone on the other side would have listened. He certainly did more than "nothing." In fact, he even approached Mitch McConnell with a proposal that a joint public statement be issued by leadership in both parties, and McConnell refused.
3
Could Messrs. Sanger, Rutenberg and Lipton explain how WikiLeaks's work to promote Sen. Sanders is any different from the New York Times's relentless work to smear him? During the entire Democratic Primary season I counted ONE positive column about Sanders, and that one column was written by Bernie himself.
7
Seriously fellas, the fact that the POTUS Barack Obama knew about this and did "nothing", said "nothing", not even a smidgen of anything to anybody, speaks volumes about your party. I don't like POTUS Trump, didn't vote for him, (or her), and probably wouldn't ever vote for him, but this is stinking ridiculous. Period. These guys were good at what they do and POTUS, then Candidate Trump had zilch to do with this, not even a smidgen. Never saw an article about POTUS Obama, re: any of this. Makes you wanna go, Hmmmm. Just kidding. You guys have an agenda and it's all to one side and all out against the other. The Truth be damned.
5
Well, Obama imposed sanctions that Trump has ignored and tried to convince Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to denounce the attacks in a bipartisan statement. But he was rebuffed. What Obama didn't do was use the hacking in a partisan manner to get Hillary elected.
4
Those who disseminated this stolen information need to be held accountable and prosecuted wherever possible. We're at the beginning of the digital age and rules need to enforced. Now.
3
It seems like they knew the intricacies and machinations of American politics better than many Americans.
4
The indictment alleges the Russian GRU was responsible for 'DC Leaks', which hacked Colin Powell's gmail account. Powell is on the board of directors of several major public companies, including Salesforce.com. The information containe in his email account was highly confidential and left Salesforce shareholders vulnerable to trading on inside information obtain from Saleforce board communications. Some of the hacked documents made the front page of the WSJ on October 19th, 2016.
There should be a Congressional hearing about it.
3
The DNC had a vulnerable system and became alarmed when it was attacked. Some of them alerted the FBI. The FBI was aware of it.
Yet they were unwilling to allow the FBI access to their server and systems to ascertain who the culprits were.
As in gather evidence of a crime.
Now Mueller has indicted 12 Russian GRU officers for a crime for which there is no evidence. Even if the Russians were extradited for trial in the US (perhaps sending Snowden as an extra benefit) would the prosecution stand a prayer of surviving discovery with NO evidence?
Worse that Mad Magazine's Spy vs Spy. Boris and Natasha are laughing.
2
Always somehow conveniently forgotten: that Russia hacked not only the DNC but the RNC as well. The DNC documents were released to influence the election. What happened to the RNC documents? They became kompromat; and there you have it: everyday Republicans turned traitorous to protect themselves from the obvious damage Russia is still holding over them. You need look no further than the Stzok circus to see just how many of them are compromised.
15
"But it also reveals that a congressional candidate whom it did not name connected with the operatives, looking for stolen documents about a political opponent, which were then sent."
Clearly, we need to understand who, what, and why politicians chose to engage in espionage and treasonous actions just to get elected! America needs to make an example out of all involved! Why do so many Americans feel justified in scorning professional sports players but turn a blind eye to traitors?
7
Has anyone provided evidence that the leaked/stolen emails are not genuine? I don't believe so. Which makes this an issue, from your standpoint, of who leaked the stolen emails, as the authenticity is not in doubt. I may have a fuzzy memory but I don't recall this- who leaked- being a concern in previous email/data episodes. Manning/Wikileaks is but one example. In others, hasn't the NYT invited readers to help comb through leaked/stolen documents? I also recall the glee, no other word best describes, when Sarah Palin's emails were hacked and leaked.
Are we to infer that who hacked and leaked is a concern only when Dems are the target?
4
I am proud to be the citizen of a country that doesn’t interfere with elections in other countries and that doesn’t hack email accounts of foreign politicians and political parties. God bless America.
1
I'm not sure if you intended sarcasm or not, but if you are a citizen of the U.S., I can assure you the U.S. intelligence community has hacked the accounts of friendly and foreign politicians and political parties, for years. Many of the Snowden classified documents leaked prove it. What isn't reported is that the Russian hacking was a reaction to US attempts to undermine Russian internal affairs, and 'mid-wife' (Victoria Nuland's words) a pro-U.S. government in Ukraine. These were 'bridges too far' for Mr. Putin.
1
What is missing in this detailing of the Russian attack on our democratic election process is the part Mitch McConnell played in helping the Russians elect Donald Trump.
McConnell refused to allow a bi-partisan statement pointing out that the Russians were interfering in our presidential election. McConnell put his partisan politics ahead of our national security.
Trump is likely a compromised Russian appointed president of the US, but let's not forget that Mitch McConnell helped the Russians put a traitor in the White House.
26
@jabarry ...Remember 'good ole boy' Mitch is from south of the Mason-Dixon Line! Gotta keep 'em in their place Jim Crow Country!
There is another angle not being considered, mainly that the DNC wasn't the only party hacked. What would be the purpose of solely hacking the DNC without having the ability to control the RNC? One would be useless without the other. We could be more compromised than they're letting on. It will all reveal in time.
3
Was the leaked information True?
I have not read anywhere that the information was not true. The NYT obtains and publishes documents from time to time ie Pentagon papers or more recently from reporters who have affairs with their sources which are not legally obtained but nevertheless are justified being printed because they are true and important for the American citizen to know.
What could be more important to know than how our elections are being manipulated by the party insiders at the RNC and the DNC.
The information released was no doubt embarrassing but then it should be. This is information we have a right to know. It is information the investigative press should be providing us in their role as the fourth estate but a role abandoned in the 2016 election.
6
This is the part where it gets political.
2
One take-away: the Russians expended a tremendous amount of human capital in order to see Trump elected. Why?
9
The elephant in the room is what the emails revealed. Remember that the leaders of the DNC quit over that.
For Sanders supporters already upset over things like the debate schedule, the meager coverage he got in the media, and the presumed "coronation" of Clinton, it was--not how--information was revealed that seemed paramount at the time.
Clinton lost white votes compared to Obama. Given that Clinton's victory was assumed, many probably failed to vote all together, or went with Stein.
So it wasn't so much that the interference caused people to vote for Trump, but that they didn't vote for Clinton.
19
And basically confirmation that the Russians caused Trump to win the election. Perception that Sanders wasn’t covered by the MSM is just that - perception. I have a feeling many anti-Clinton liberals who were galvanized by the relatively benign content of the hacked emails are now feeling a tad remorseful now that the source of the hacking is in full view.
2
It is telling that Russian agents at the GRU and especially Guccifer 2.0 were very knowledgeable about American politics and our electoral system.
Mr. Putin was once challenged by an American reporter about the lack of democracy and free elections in Russian. He responded by saying that Americans do not have true democracy and free elections with the Electoral College.
He knew our vulnerability and tapped into it.
It is high time we got rid of the Electoral College and elect our presidents by popular vote, the way we do our governors and majors.
21
Indictments do not equal convictions. Not sure anti Trumpsters get that. It's like unattributed sources. Indictments can be anything thrown against the wall. Liberals know and have complained about unfair, targeted indictments in the past. They, above all, should be aware of the possibilities.
5
Assange was in the Bolivian Embassy at the time he asked the Russians for stolen information (property) re Hillary. Knowingly receiving stolen property is a crime. Because the Bolivian Embassy is legally considered part of the nation of Bolivia, Assange was in Bolivia when he committed these crimes. He remains in Bolivia.
Hopefully the US has an extradition treaty with Bolivia. Mueller will ask Bolivia to extradite Assange to the US to face trial. Turns out Assange’s paranoia about being in American custody has become reality as a result of his own acts.
2
Was any of the information hacked by the Russians been determined to be false? Apparently it was all true. Why wasn't it discovered by the investigative Press or was it known and buried by the MSM? How do we know so much now about the Russian hacking but not then Are the sources such as that detailed in the Indictment secured by us through hacking the Russians? Much of it sound like it came from the CIA. Why were the DNC and DCC cyber security systems so weak? How could discovering the truth about the DNC and DCC harm the election (Democracy dies in the Darkness)? If the new Indictments have any value it is the susceptibility of such systems to hacking. The Russians will never show up and if they do Mueller doesn't have the resources to try the same over the next twenty years. We must assume that everything is subject to hacking. Lesson. Don't e mail what you don't want to be known by all. Now the "Strzok-Page" Rule.
9
This clearly reminds that Dems rigged their primary, and after decades of giving Russia/USSR a wide berth and sometimes even showing their brand of socialism sympathy, now they stiffen their spines. Finally, what makes us think that we should be immune to other powers meddling in our affairs? Have we abstained from meddling in other countries' elections? Given what we have done, getting worked up over planting Facebook content seems childish. What if foreign powers did the kinds of things we actually have done to other countries? CIA, military, money to pet candidates, even coup support and killing-we have done these things. But the left wants to blame their failed attempt to elect HRC at all costs on something, so why not Russians with fake Facebook and WikiLeaks accounts, and then treat it like it is equivalent to what we did to prop up the south Vietnamese or something.
7
And why didn't President Trump do something about this when it was known about in 2016? Oh, that's right, someone else was still president then.
7
Correct
Obama was president, had information and wanted to go public in a bipartisan way to avoid it looking like he was trying to help Hilary -- and Mitch McConnell refused. Obama then took the high road -- DUH. In a world where the GOP will stoop to every lie and trick as we are now learning, taking the high road when our country is at stake is perhaps the biggest mistake Obama made.
BUT it is now TWO YEARS LATER and Trump is president and his OWN officials are saying it is happening again NOW (see Dan Coates warnings in the last week) and Trump ignores and accuses his OWN officials of being wrong and is doing nothing.
Why? Because he fears if he admits what is happening now it will make it clear that it happened then and voters were influenced.
16
The Russians will never be crossed examined, so whatever Muellar has will never be put to the test. Further, it was announced just in time to disrupt the summit between Putin and Trump, so I doubt if there is anything, in fact, to learn, since there seems to be an obvious adjenda.
Back to unsourced commentary.
1
I would argue that this constitutes an act of aggression which should invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty.
5
Russia alone must be Europe's saviour. The one powerful state of Russia must take a disinterested stand as the head of an alliance aimed at guaranteeing the balance of power in Europe in order to save the world.
1
I can hardly wait for the next round of indictments! Lots of Americans, all Republicans. The dots will all connect right before the Nov elections. Karma, doing its thing. Better late than never.
14
Spreading misinformation with fake evidence to support it is called "marketing". We are constantly subjected to such pressures from all over. It is not just the Russians. They include our own White House, FOX news, GOP and many other extreme right wing organizations and media. So let us not fool ourselves and think stopping Russians will solve the problem.
28
Paul Manafort. Roger Stone. Roger Ailes. Michael Flynn. These are but a few of the truly corrupt Americans who brought this country down. Then, there is the NRA.
We need to start hearing names of members of Congress who have been helping from their seats of power.
Democrats in Congress need to be far more aggressive and out in front, in confronting Republicans on their treasonous defense of a president who cannot - should not - be defended.
Democrats need to stand up and counter every single Republican assertion that is being put in the public sphere with the right facts, and the right context.
Our European allies are starting to say publicly that America can no longer be trusted. Who is the Democratic leader who is an EU expert, whose job it should be to allay European fears that we've gone completely down the tubes?
We need better leadership than we have.
---
The Elevation of Idiotic Republican Shills: Rand Paul & Russian Hacking Edition
https://www.rimaregas.com/2018/07/15/the-elevation-of-idiotic-republican...
59
The Russians deny any involvement in election meddling.
The Russians denied the mass executions of Polish intelligentsia by the NKVD in April and May 1940. Then, after the fall of the USSR, they provided the evidence that they actually carried out the killings.
The Russians deny that Putin ordered the FSB to carry out the apartment bombings in Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, in order to provide a pretext for restarting the war in Chechnya.
Poisonings, killing journalists - all denied. "False flag operations", they say, or, "you have no proof" in the face of massive evidence to the contrary.
Deny, deny, deny.
51
Let's assume that Stranahan and Stone didn't know that Guccifer was GRU. Let's assume that even when many reports when the hack became published immediately said Guccifer was a Russian avatar. So throughout the summer and fall Stone and Stranahan and other unidentified Republicans were perfectly willing to seek and take illegally-obtained information to be used against the Democrats, and especially, Hilary Clinton. And so was Trump's son. They had to know or strongly suspect that they were doing business with a hostile foreign power. Yet Breitbart didn't care. Stone didn't care. And Don, Jr. didn't care. Perhaps this isn't treason, but it is certainly at the very least unpatriotic.
67
I would like to see the diagram delineating the path from Russian intelligence to release of the emails extended to show how the NYTs evaluated them, decided to run with the story in a daily journalistic blitzkrieg at the expense of any in depth scrutiny of Donald Trump’s business dealings and Russian financing and possible compromat. Until the Times offers some public reassessment of the editorial policies that lead to this disaster of a presidency I find it difficult to trust the paper’s motivations and judgements now. It doesn’t weaken the Times to admit and address errors in judgement. In fact it would restore reader faith.
29
If the allegations in the indictment are true and COlin Powell was hacked by the Russian GRU, then everyone that corresponded with Powell could have been compromised by the Russians. Susan Rice was using an AOL account in her official duty as NSC adviser to correspond with Powell, among hundreds of others in the national security establishment and the media. Who else in Powell's address book was hacked, and what other 'take' do the Russians have?
25
The other "take" may very well be why I often perceive our leaders' lack of intervention as being a sign that there is nothing left to do but wait for complete dominion by Vladimir.
This puts a whole new spin on Clinton's long-ago plaints about a "vast right-wing conspiracy." One led by the erstwhile left?
15
When the slime trail leads back to Moscow and Putin, one wonders how a cozy chat today is even taking place, or indeed why. Putin's deadly tentacles aren't just meandering their way across the States; like the invasive knotweed they've spread to besmirch many nations.
Russia have a clear and brazen strategy. The bonus, they attracted many willing fools to do some of the legwork. However, their biggest fool and prize recruit continues to open the floodgates. Extraordinary.
56
With all due respect, does anyone who voted for Trump want to take a crack at explaining how, in the wake of this indictment, he deems it appropriate to meet with the Russian president behind closed doors? Are you telling me that this whole narrative has been fabricated by the fake news media and the biased intelligence community? Because I've tried to watch objectively as the situation unfolds, but at this point I can only conclude that the collusion continues right before our very eyes.
182
I voted for Trump and I feel duped, but I don't consider myself part of his base. Many people vote along conservative lines because we are conservatives. There is no need to be hostile like the altLeft denying freedom of speech on college campuses across the country. I never told anyone the "whole narrative has been fabricated by the fake news media and the biased intelligence community." That doesn't change my opinion that Hillary lost the election partly because of her terrible campaign plan and the Democratic Party's illegal efforts to snuff out the Sanders campaign. Let's not forget about that or the illegal private email servers she had that were compromised by the Russians.
22
bernie was not a Democrat, so why should the party invest in getting him elected? You might as well ask why the repubs didn't back him.
Nevertheless, Hillary had 3 million more votes than Donald.
8
The NYTs seems to always forget to tell their readers what the E mails said. The stolen E mails show the DNC and Clinton campaign cheating Bernie Sanders.
30
Yes, we are aware. it's a separate issue.
9
Trust me, nobody forgets about this. It's in keeping with all politicians. That being said, it's why we have trump. I have relatives who voted based on this and misinformation about Clinton. I will never be convinced that votes did not change based on ill-gotten information, whether true or not.
13
And they were duly punished for it as Sanders supporters voted for anybody but Clinton. That’s ultimately why she lost. But the Republicans didn’t report the theft as they were bound to do and that’s dirty.
5
Has the FBI ever been given access to the DNC server? The Russia investigation is of huge national importance in that it is impeding the new Admin.
If the FBI has not done their own examination, why? Don't they have the authority through the courts to acquire it?
3
The server wasn't attacked physically. It does not need to be dusted for fingerprints. So the FBI does not need physical access to it. What they need, and what they got, was a copy of the data on it and, more importantly, the data on the routers.
7
No that is not the way it works. They need to forensically examine it and that requires the physical possession of the server. It was withheld for a reason.
Greg,
That makes more sense to me. For example, the DNC perhaps benefit If the distribution on Wikileaks was initiated by Russia. Another possibility is that it was leaked by an insider.
Also the FBI may want to be confident they are aware of everything that leaked because it could contain classified information, or information that could be used for blackmail.
Did the DNC share the entire contents of the drive, or just breakin specific information?
Also, aren't specificial tool useful for things like recovery information that does not show up with a disk copy.
I can understand why the DNC might not want their private info looked at by outsiders in part because of leaks and in part a finding in an investigation of one thing, can spawn tangential investigations.
Largely boring article that doesn’t say much new, just rehashes the details of The DNC having its dirty laundry aired before the court of public opinion, this seems to me to be more of a shoot the messenger situation than anything else; does anyone believe for one minute that we and our allies do much worse than this to sway public opinion, particularly if we were concerned about a country whose presidential canidate had made threatening comments about our country as Hillary did concerning Iran, Syria and Russia even restarting the war in Iraq: what do you think we have a multi billion dollar organization like the N.S.A. for or what right does Israel have to break into Iranian safes to obtain fifteen year old copies of what Iran was up to at the time, it was purely to influence world opinion “ see we have proof that at one time Iranians were intent on making”, so what else is new? Democrats who are still ruminating the loss of the election( I am myself, Bernie should have won), and refuse to accept the fact they ran a flawed candidate and the D.N.C. did do a bunch of stuff they should be ashamed ofshould move on and attempt to regain their former working class base rather than seeking constant diversion to insure nothing constructive gets done, I used to believe that was a Republican tactic, but now it seems that both sides of the aisle are run by very rich people intent only on advancing their ideologies and increasing their wealth rather than the needs of the middle class.
8
The residual benefits of these disclosures is intended to be to educate non Republicans of the extent of corruption and manipulation. Unless Trump's approval ratings move to 20% it's not working. What is it going to take to get the American majority to wake up and get motivated to show up and vote against this assault on their well being?
3
MB, good question “what is it going to take to get Americans to wake up”, to the fact that they are being played by both rich neo conservatives and rich neo liberals. Neither party represents the interests of the majority of former middle class Americans, one side panders to the evangelical neo conversatives and fringe issues like gun control and abortion the other side panders to their monied base of pro globalization, pro Israel Firsters, gay rights, DACA etc. each of these issues in their own right deserve consideration but not as camouflage to allow the monied interests to remake the world as they would have it, its a big world and Im afraid we are belatedly realizing it consists of billions more people than us and our one or two remaining allies. We had better start making this a world that works for everyone, Black, white, Muslim, Jew or Southern Baptist, working class Americans and our real allies working class Europeans that we died in the trenches alongside in WWII, if not we will continue to circle the drain as the rest of the world and the cockroach one percent move on without the rest of us Americans, we will have served their purpose and will be discarded as easily as the millions of former factory workers in America.
Putin "insisted that Russia had nothing to do with the attacks, telling Mr. Trump, as he later related to a reporter, 'If we did, we wouldn’t have gotten caught, because we’re professionals.' Mr. Trump said, 'I thought that was a good point because they are some of the best in the world.'"
So why didn't Trump say, "But our cyber experts are better. They're the best! We caught the Russians red-handed. They did it. We know they did it. And we're gonna make sure they don't do it again. That's how we make America great again."
Why? Because he wants a pat on the head from one of the most successful sociopaths in the world, one who probably has the wherewithal to pull Trump's pants down any time he wants.
120
Hillary won by approximately 3 million votes.
Russian interference directly influenced the outcome of the election.
Trump and his entire campaign and the entire GOP knew this.
You are in denial. They are all traitors.
133
The candidates on the right received the most votes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016#...
And Trump got 56.5% of the electoral college(what actually decides the election) and 60 % of the states in the 'United States of America'.
6
What you may not be aware of is that Trump just barely won, by < 1%, in 3 states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. These "swing states" total 46 electoral college votes. Had they gone for Hillary instead, she would've won the election.
That's why the Russian impact on the election, small though it may have been, might have been enough to change the outcome of the election. We'll probably never know for sure.
1
Keep in mind that most of the details of this came out after the election. To say "Obama did nothing" is like saying Roosevelt did nothing to stop the Pearl Harbor attack.
Obama imposed sanctions on Russia as one of his last acts. This clearly displeased Trump.
1
Excellent article.
It certainly helps illuminate the dirty underbelly of American political campaigns.
The 2016 campaign was the worst so far because of the Russian attack and the 'help' they provided.
This foreign attack seemed to bring out the worst in many Americans who were already on the fringe.
49
@cw
My fervent hope is that Mueller will indict the collaborators like Stone, Don , Jr., Jared Kushner,Jeff Sessions,Devin Nunes and the people mentioned in this article. It is apparent that the Republicans have bought into the Trump version of a witch hunt- both Senators RonJohnson and Rand Paul have recently stated the hacking was no big deal. They have become Putinistas, full-standing members of the Russian Duma.
This country’s democracy is under attack by Trump and his partisan enablers. The GOP has become an arm of Putin’s cabal. Without indictments of Trump’s enablers the attack may very well succeed.
85
The Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans engage in endless hacking attempts on the US government, prominent citizens and technology companies. Been going on for years. Trump did not set up the poorly secured servers of the DNC or make Hillary Clinton set up a private server in her basement when a government employee. Trump did not force Podesta to respond to phishing emails or utilize a stupid password.
Hillary lost the election based on her poor campaign decisions, policy plans, and work history, not because of Russian hacking that the Obama administration (her friends and supporters) did little about as it was not considered a big deal.
17
Sanity and common sense don't go over well here but very nicely stated and spot on.
5
The Obama administration did little about it *overtly* for the opposite reason: they knew it was a huge deal. But emphasizing just how big a deal it was ran the risk of spooking the voting public and suppressing turnout, so Obama rolled the dice and assured himself that Trump had no chance of winning — help or no help from the Russians. (His toss came up snake eyes.). In any case, don’t try to tell me for a *minute* that had Obama actually made a big deal about Russian interference that you’d have believed him. You bought into Trump’s claim that “the election is rigged — unless I win.”
13
You do realize that Clinton's server was not hacked?
10
And President Obama did nothing. Some in his administration have tried to blame Senator McConnell for not agreeing to a bipartisan statement, but if Obama believed the threat was that grave he would’ve simply proceeded on his own. So by his own actions, President Obama showed he did not believe there was a threat. Or, perhaps, maybe he was re- remembering his snarky one-liner in the 2012 debate where he told Mitt Romney that the 1980s wanted its foreign policy back.
8
President Obama levied sanctions against Russia. Check it out.
26
And presidential candidate Trump didn't insist anyone do anything. In fact, he called for more of the same.
31
What I love about people like you is that it’s all about affixing blame. Apparently because this is Obama’s fault there’s nothing we as a country need to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And anyway, the Putin government favors *my* guy, so ... why bother?
5
Russian-Republicans don't give a damn about America, democracy or the rule of law.
If you like Russia so much, Republican voters, you should really move there so you can enjoy the full blessings of authoritarianism, fake democracy and Russian Orthodox white nationalism.
November 6 2018.
Vote for Americans, not Russian-Republicans.
168
Vote while you still can.
2
Parroting government gossip never looked so bad. Unfounded, unproven and untried, the legend of Guccifer 2.0 is like the lie that traveled around the world while truth was starting to put on socks. The DNC server was breached from the inside.
10
For there to be criminal conspiracy and collusion, does it even matter if the conniving Americans in this story knew their sources were Russian spies? I guess it would rise to actual treason if they did knowingly connive with a hostile foreign power to undermine our electoral system. That might yet come to light, at least for some of these dirty tricksters. But, is that really essential to a criminal prosecution for what they did, regardless of who was on the other side of these dirty deals?
16
FYI, we're not at war with Russia.
3
Yeah the operation was so "sophisticated" that they relied on "click here to change your password" email fishing at DNC leaders, come on people wake up.
You don't need an actual war for a foreign country to be hostile. In any case, we are in a cyberwar with Russia. FYI.
A message from Putin was sent
To the Trump team who knew what that meant
The press lost its mind
And we were robbed
By One -Thousandth of Just One Percent
12
It did not happen because trump said that it was Fake News. OK, that settles it, for the Fox News crowd and his base.
20
Just wondering when we will see a thorough listing of the contacts Russians had with Democrats, Hillary and team?
9
That wouldn't matter as Hillary was not Putin's chosen one. That honor belongs to the sociopath in the White House.
4
Sure. Despite all evidence to the contrary — especially these latest indictments against members of Russian military intelligence for hacking and leaking thousands of DNC and Clinton campaign documents — Putin was really working behind the scenes to line the pockets of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton family. Makes perfect sense.
4
A Congressional candidate sought and accepted stolen documents, that is a crime whether or not he knew he has dealing with a Russian...chances are this candidate has been contacted by the FBI and is co-operating with Mueller.
31
You say the hacks involved "opposition research" and "vulnerabilities involving their own candidates." Didn't the hacks also show evidence that the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign corruptly conspired to deny Bernie Sanders the nomination? This was the biggest revelation. Probably not mentioned here since the Times also did its best to deny Bernie the nomination, an effort, like its support of the Iraq War, it now regrets. Or does it? Trump sure sells a lot of papers.
22
Yeah, I was shocked — shocked! — when I noticed how the DNC arranged for the televised primary debates between Clinton and Sanders to be scheduled to minimize viewership.
And how dare the DNC not favor a candidate who doesn’t belong to the party or help to raise funds to re-elect its members!
Long story short: anyone with half a brain knew long before the DNC hack that the party favored Clinton. And as someone who actually donated to the Sanders campaign, I didn’t have a problem with it.
Parties have been nominating candidates whose “turn” it is for decades. Only people new to presidential campaigns could be outraged by discovering incontrovertible evidence that a party had put its thumb on the scale for one candidate over another.
15
@Ned Ludd: As only neophytes are shocked, SHOCKED that the Russians try to interfere with our elections, as we do theirs. Right?
"If you have anything hillary related we want it in the next two days prefable because the DNC is approaching,”
Although Russians wrote this message, it could also have been written by any right wing, Hillary hating, Political Action Committee.
Yes, the Russians tried to influence the campaign. (Hillary was critical of Russia when she was Secretary of State, and the Russians viewed 2016 as payback time.)
But it's unlikely anybody based their vote on what they saw on some Russian sponsored Facebook page.
Trump supporters had enough reasons to vote for Trump without the need for Russian interference.
13
I agree with you that no one based their vote specifically on these Russian-backed Facebook pages, or other such pages. However, I think that all of it provided for the slight pressure across society in the direction of favoring Trump. Averaging over society, the general public does not get into the details and subtleties of politics. If one had negative feelings about Clinton, then all these little things from the Russians (plus the constant Big Brother'ing of her by Trump -- re: the constant "Crooked Hillary" cacophony) add up, perhaps not coherently, but enough to sway someone once they get into the election booth. I would have thought that this could not alter an election that would have gone otherwise, but how else do we explain the totally mystifying results of getting someone as crazy and off-the-wall as Trump for President. Perhaps I am wrong. But, it truly is beyond comprehension. Did people really think that Clinton was so bad to a degree of actually being worse than Trump, both as a person and a political leader?
132
It's unlikely the Nixon campaign's crimes got people to vote for him. The Watergate break-in didn't lead to more votes for Nixon.
But unless you think we live in a dictatorship, a crime is still a crime.
13
I totally disagree. While anyone could have said that, one of Trump's advisors said that to operatives of another country.
You're right, there were tons of reasons not to vote for Hillary, but there was so much Russian influence (on both sides even) that it's just dead wrong to say it's unlikely anyone based their votes on it. People read propaganda that stoked them into a frenzy and they voted accordingly. I'm not saying Trump couldn't have won on his own but it's ignorant to say after all that has come out that it's unlikely anyone based their vote on a Russian sponsored page.
9
The election meddling issue is a distraction at the present time. We should be focused on the need to oust Trump and his “administration” before he does more terrible damage to the US. It is imperative to get out the vote for the mid-term election. Please stop focussing on election meddling for the present.
5
I think for a large segment of the population the meddling is a motivator for participation... that being said we do have the capacity to focus on more than one topic at a time.
15
Tracking down and prosecuting election meddling is part of getting rid of Trump and his party. Withhold judgment on Mueller investigation's impact on future election until he releases his report of findings.
6
Mueller has the goods, but my strong feeling is that he is conscious of having to build a case that will knock the air out of the Trump political cult so that they can be subdued.
Just stopping Trump is not sufficient; this cancer Trump has created needs to be stopped as well. The insanity needs to be stopped and deflated before the Trump cult turns to violence. Mueller is smart enough to know that the end game isn't putting Trump and his people behind bars, it's saving America from implosion... this is an existential crisis.
333
Very well put. When people said they would leave the U.S. if Trump won the presidency, I said that Trump and his movement is a cancer and that it will spread across international borders.
1
Well said, Libertine.
I think you're right.
" ... Mueller has the goods" -- unfortunately, with respect to the allegations in this indictment, Mueller and Rosenstein clearly know that none of the accused Russians will ever face prosecution and accordingly no pre-trial disclosure or proof at trial will be required -- so we will never know what "goods" he has.
In the case with the previous indictment involving Russian citizens, the Mueller team made the mistake of charging Russian companies which in turn engaged American lawyers who pleaded not guilty on their behalfs -- as a result pre-trial discovery and taking depositions will now proceed. In the present case, this error was not repeated, so there is no possibility of the Mueller team being put to proof.
Roger Stone should have been indicted just like General Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort and the dozen Russian spies last Friday. His denials of being infiltrated by Guccifer 2.0 are as plausible as Donald Trump’s “witch hunt” and “fake news” claims. Stone’s as dirty as Fox News, Trump’s state-run propaganda network.
All of these self-righteous Republicans who claim to be more patriotic than the Founders have been traitors to their country. Guccifer 2.0 left us exposed and who has any confidence that the mid-terms will be cleansed of the pollutants that Russia has spilled into our national reservoir.
Devin Nunes, Roger Goodlatte and Trey Gowdy refuse to entertain any question that their “dear leader’s” election was anything but pure. Richard J. Daley’s Cook County theft of the 1960 election in favor of John F. Kennedy pales in comparison. Daley’s trickery was “just politics;” Stone and the Republicans in Congress have tried to deliver us to a hostile foreign power.
But for what purpose?
114
To what purpose are the Colluders-In-Chief colluding right now, as we speak?
My guess is, to preserve the control and superiority of the mythical white race in the face of culture change and changing demographics.
11
@soxared: you describe the theft, the trickery & treason
committed by republicans and ask "But for what purpose?"
i'd say: when in doubt, check for who ultimately benefits.
in most cases it'$ $adly plain & $imple material greed.
How are these actions by Assange, Stone, and Grucifer not acts of war?
Congress is complicit by willingly ignoring the evidence. Instead they attack the very department that is trying to defend our Nation. Outrage does not even come close to the way I feel about Congress.
Vote, vote, vote.
118
I seem to recall another incident involving the stealing of documents from Democratic Party HQ and White House denials it had anything to do with the event...Anyone recall how that ended up?
47
Donald Trump is a Russian asset whose intent is to weaken the US and destroy the Russian alliance.
Say it out loud and every day. Challenge republican congress and senate members for their complicity.
90
Just as the antebellum slave owners of the South were willing to betray their country to maintain their hold on power, so the Republicans betray theirs. The parallels are stark.
166
Yes, and there is historical continuity between the two. Once the Democratic Party embraced the African-American voter, the Solid South went from solid Democratic to Solid Republican. The old plantation mentality—absolute measures to maintain hold on absolute power.
Friday's indictment is an elaborate misdirection. The DNC's server was breached from inside the DNC, not hacked from the outside. Hillary's e-mails were leaked by a disgruntled insider, upset at how Bernie Sanders had been treated by the DNC. See: https://www.thenation.com/article/a-new-report-raises-big-questions-abou...
9
Your article was from August 2017. The Mueller investigation had barely gotten started. They hadn’t interviewed or indicted numerous Trump associates at that point. This is unfolding much as the Watergate investigation did, a bit at a time. Republicans are doing their best to undermine the investigation but, guess what, all of Trump’s top intelligence appointees have agreed that Russians hacked the DNC. The Senate Intelligence Committee conducted a bipartisan investigation and came to the same conclusion. The House committee, as usual has gone off the rails with investigations of Strzok just like they did with Benghazi but even they haven’t gone so far as to disagree about Russian interference in the election. The problem with the House is they get re-elected every two years so they have to drum up their bona fides to get re elected the next time around. The full truth will come out in time. We just have to be patient.
115
Richard, please tell us about your definition of hacking. As far as I can tell hackers seek to infiltrate a server or website by exploiting vulnerabilities. The phishing scam that caught Podesta was definitely hacking. BTW, I'm not sure you're an expert on cyber-security.
As a Trumpian Party, the GOP is now in favor of hacking as witnessed by Trump plea to Russia to expose Clinton's deleted emails. Sad!
1
Some of us are too old to be patient. And have been through too much.
1
I have always thought of Roger Stone as the kind of slimy," Damon Runyon" kind of character straight out of ,"Guys & Dolls." The type that everyone knows is as crooked as a fixed horse race. Now it seems as if he may indeed be the one who was colluding with Guccifer and WikiLeaks to help his good buddy Trump become President whatever it took. The evidence is now overwhelming. The Truth (as it always will) is like the chickens finally coming home to roost. Anyone who does not believe by now that the entire Trump team was not up to it`s. eyeballs in this needs a serious reality check. Time for Mueller to tell the whole world just how badly the G.O.P. need to rid their hands of the traitor Donald J. Trump.
140
@Greg Hodges
GOPers aided & promoted this CON! They're ALL guilty of collusion & treason; individually and as an organization. The whole unsavory 'lot' should be indicted! Traitors ALL!
1
Proving once again that Republicans will do anything...absolutely anything.... shut down the government; default on the national debt, deny health insurance to millions of people, give gigantic tax cuts to billionaires --- anything -- including consorting with enemies -- to get their way.
Democrats should sue the Republican Party -- as they did, successfully, decades ago -- and get a $100 million settlement.
Just to remind the Republicans that there's a price for being a traitor.
289
Dont forget stealing a supreme court seat.
77
or two.
Make that $100 Billion!
10
An obvious point would be that even if Stone, et al, didn’t know that Guccifer 2 was a Russian disinformation site, they had no qualms about accepting content from clearly anonymous online sources and then using that content against the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
What does that say about their judgement? About their eagerness to put Trump into office? About their continued lies?
276
Yeah, and vice versa with the "Steele Dossier." Everything is global including interference in the internal affairs of countries -- mostly by us. As much as I am horrified by the disastrous rise of Trump fascism, I recognize the weakness in this propaganda campaign and would rather have Trump indicted on actual, probable crimes and misdemeanors rather than on innuendo and twisted data that create more questions than answers and obscure larger issues .
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/07/14/clinging-to-collusion-why-evidence...
7
What does it say about their patriotism?
8
What struck me about Stone, et.al.'s behavior is that they claim they didn't know it was Russian, but DID know it was foreign. Foreign intervention in our elections from ANY country or individual and cooperation with such forces is TREASON.
I'm more than willing to wait for Mr. Mueller, as its proving to be solid, damning and indictable. Its no surprise that nearly anyone connected with the Trump Administration is "lawyering up".
7
The Russian theft was more extensive than reported. And the Republican willingness to deal in stolen goods is troublesome.
Even by Republican standards, this is pretty low.
Just think what the 2016 election might have looked like without the Russian bear putting its paws on the scales for the Republicans, gerrymandering and Republican voter suppression.
Hey Republicans, if you have to cheat to win, maybe your platform isn’t so good.
And, yes, Trump deserves the asterisk by his name. Even with Russian help he couldn’t win the popular vote.
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You state that "Republican voter suppression" also contributed to Hillary losing the election....
Where can I get more information on this point? No bullet points but source of the allegation and statement.
I did not vote in the 2016 election because both candidates were flawed. I am interested in voter suppression because it is a crime and no one has been indicted two years after the crime was committed.
Rita in California — well put!
Republicans have been playing a very successful 30 year 'long game' of gaining control of State government and then further gerrymandering districts to ensure future victory's (yes in some cases democrats have done similar gerrymandering but NOT to the national extent of republicans).
Republican voter suppression efforts in elections have been going on for decades. Phony voter "fraud" commissions seek to legitimize republican lies about voter fraud, which is virtually non existent in the U. S..
Packing lower courts and the Supreme Court with partisan republicans ensures continued success in over turning voter rights, gerrymandering, implementing terrible decisions like Citizens United (which is the exact opposite of uniting for the citizens since it really benefits corporations and republicans in retaining power.
There's plenty more, but I gotta go.
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How is this any different than Watergate? In both cases, there were illegal acts committed in order to help the Republicans. Crimes. Committed. By people who wanted to help the Republicans.
And in both cases, the Republicans used the information and then the President tried to cover up the crimes.
And like Nixon, Trump and all his dirty minions who helped cover up this crime should resign.
In the case of Watergate, the Nixon campaign didn't need lots of crimes committed to help them win. (Nixon won both the electoral college and popular vote by huge margins). But because they decided the Nixon campaign believed it was above the law, they welcomed those crimes committed on their behalf.
Trump probably did need the help of those criminals, but even if that can't be proved, he not only accepted it, but he covered it up, just like Nixon.
What makes Trumpgate worse than Watergate is that in Trumpgate, the help was being given by a foreign adversary whom Trump is now meeting with privately and has done nothing but promote that foreign adversaries interests over all else.
Treason. Trumpgate, like Watergate, is about the Republicans benefitting from crimes and then covering it up.
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I find it curious that far right news outlets can peddling in and their readers can believe the ridiculously outlandish conspiracy theories and lies on one hand but then refute and downplay very serious allegations that have actual proof behind them. All of these characters have proven that they believe that this is a winner take all war and that they lie and use nuclear options to get the wacky dream world they think they want. I dont want their world. Do most American really want the world that is being created right now? Do most Americans believe that this hostile war like takeover of our country make a better America than the one we had? Is they do they are wrong.
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So Stone was willing to take unchecked information from an unknown source in order to vilify members of the democratic party, and especially Hillary.
If this had gone the other way around Trump right now would have his team of lawyers suing everybody for what he calls fake news.
More then ever the special investigation needs to continue in order to get all the information concerning the outside influence into our electoral process, so we can put an end to it before the next election.
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NYT readers know that. And we now know that's what caused a lot of the atrocities we are experiencing. That information was used to divide the Democrats despite Bernie's endorsement of Clinton after the she won the nomination. It's one of the oldest tricks in the books; divide and conquer. The rich use it against the poor to this day and it works. Just look how you are trying to dredge up division instead of promoting a unified effort to get rid of the fascist demagogue who may be inhabiting the White House fraudulently.
MBSTRONG, my point is that if the investigation is carried out to it's fullest it will probably result in getting rid of the fascist demagogue and quite a few others.
I believe we should be unified in seeing it to the end, you mistook my intent.
You wrote: "So Stone was willing to take unchecked information from an unknown source in order to vilify members of the democratic party, and especially Hillary."
Are you really unaware of the Steele dossier- ordered and paid for by the DNC- and the role it played in the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign? The FBI/Justice Dept still refuses to release the FISA warrant application that would show exactly what was behind their wiretap requests. Quite the difference between a political operative reaching out to discuss hacked and leaked emails, and the FBI being sicced on your opponent.
By the way, unlike the info in the Steele dossier, no one is disputing the accuracy of the hacked Democratic emails. '
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