U.S. Indicts 12 Russian Military Officers for DNC Hacking

"Special counsel Robert Mueller just indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers, accusing them of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.

They are charged with hacking the computer networks of members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. They allegedly coordinated to release damaging information to sway the election under the names “DCLeaks” and “Guccifer 2.0.” However, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told reporters that it’s unclear if their efforts changed the outcome of the election.

In total, the indictment charges 11 spies with conspiracy to commit computer crimes, eight counts of aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder money. Two of the defendants are charged with a separate conspiracy to commit computer crimes."

https://www.vox.com/2018/7/13/17568806/mueller-russia-intelligence-indictment-full-text

The full indictment is included in the Vox story. 

I haven't read the indictment but commentators say that reference is made to a party which published the hacked material and presumably it is Wikileaks, although Wikileaks isn't indicted. 

eta - Reading quickly through the indictment, Wikileaks is Organization 1. 


We should now be hearing from those parties who insist that Russia didn't hack, that it was a leak, and the entire story was fabricated by Clinton's team and Obama was part of the scheme.  


No thanks to Barak.  This guy had it right, but the left knew much better.



cramer said:
We should now be hearing from those parties who insist that Russia didn't hack, that it was a leak, and the entire story was fabricated by Clinton's team and Obama was part of the scheme.  

Yep. Clinton and Obama, senior members of the DEEP STATE.

A DEEP STATE plot to embarrass Russia and Putin, that stalwart of human rights. 


alex4855 said:
this guy had it right

 It's great to see you break with Trump, finally.


dave23 said:


alex4855 said:
this guy had it right
 It's great to see you break with Trump, finally.

 Oh, but for the collusion that doesn't exist.. Hillaryarious- a hack attack on a dumb DNC server.




alex4855 said:


dave23 said:

alex4855 said:
this guy had it right
 It's great to see you break with Trump, finally.
 Oh, but for the collusion that doesn't exist.. Hillaryarious- a hack attack on a dumb DNC server.


 Back to not making sense...


cramer said:
We should now be hearing from those parties who insist that Russia didn't hack, that it was a leak, and the entire story was fabricated by Clinton's team and Obama was part of the scheme.  

Like clockwork:  

"Based on quick read (maybe I missed something?). Mueller alleges GRU hacked DNC & covered it up. A lot of claims about what Russian officers did online. But I didn't catch any reference to what evidence Mueller has to make him believe it was them. How does he know they did it?"

https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1017824045612617728


"Or maybe not. When the targets of Mueller’s last big PR-driven indictment (Internet Research Agency) unexpectedly showed up in court, Mueller tried to delay the trial, hid his evidence, and quietly passed the case to other lawyers because he can’t close.

https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1017817592449458177




alex4855 said:


dave23 said:

alex4855 said:
this guy had it right
 It's great to see you break with Trump, finally.
 Oh, but for the collusion that doesn't exist.. Hillaryarious- a hack attack on a dumb DNC server.

 I, for one, am impressed that the Russians have bots that even monitor local discussion boards, to make sure the defensive talking points get out as fast as possible.


ok. Here is what I am predicting.Trump saw the emails. There was something in them Hillary did mot want to be revealed. The Trump campaign blackmailed her. She threw the election by not campaigning in important states.


cramer said:
https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/former-us-intelligence-analysts-cia-allegations-of-email-hacking-are-baseless?page=next&limit=60#discussion-replies-3326482

  oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh 


nohero said:


alex4855 said:

dave23 said:

alex4855 said:
this guy had it right
 It's great to see you break with Trump, finally.
 Oh, but for the collusion that doesn't exist.. Hillaryarious- a hack attack on a dumb DNC server.
 I, for one, am impressed that the Russians have bots that even monitor local discussion boards, to make sure the defensive talking points get out as fast as possible.

Comrade detects a light Russian snow falling ?  Perhaps ?  What an amazing indictment.  While we shiver at the prospect of Russians electronically invading our sovereignty, Pravda reports President Trump is delivering 200 body bags to Putin next week - all with "Made in the USA" tags on them.  

Winter is coming....



"HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN TARGETED MORE AGGRESSIVELY THAN PREVIOUSLY REPORTED

"This is a detail I’ve known for quite some time: Hillary’s campaign actually faced far more persistent hacking threats than previously known. Of absolutely critical importance, the indictment makes it clear that GRU hackers spear-phished Hillary’s personal office on July 27, after Donald Trump asked Russia to find her emails.

For example, on or about July 27, 2016, the Conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office. At or around the same time, they also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton Campaign.

I know a key witness in that part of the hack has been waiting to share his story (he’s quite happy this is finally out), so expect far more details on this in coming days."

https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/07/13/the-russian-hack/

One of the comments says that the spearfishing campaign on July 27 is strong evidence that the "Russia, if you're listening..."  was a direct go ahead. 



cramer said:


"HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN TARGETED MORE AGGRESSIVELY THAN PREVIOUSLY REPORTED

This is a detail I’ve known for quite some time: Hillary’s campaign actually faced far more persistent hacking threats than previously known. Of absolutely critical importance, the indictment makes it clear that GRU hackers spear-phished Hillary’s personal office on July 27, after Donald Trump asked Russia to find her emails.
For example, on or about July 27, 2016, the Conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office. At or around the same time, they also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton Campaign.
I know a key witness in that part of the hack has been waiting to share his story (he’s quite happy this is finally out), so expect far more details on this in coming days."
https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/07/13/the-russian-hack/

One of the comments says that the spearfishing campaign on July 27 is strong evidence that the "Russia, if you're listening..."  was a direct go ahead. 



Russia is always listening.. so is China, Korea, Germany, England, Honduras.....


nohero said:


cramer said:
https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/former-us-intelligence-analysts-cia-allegations-of-email-hacking-are-baseless?page=next&limit=60#discussion-replies-3326482
  oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh   oh oh 

 


cramer said:
We should now be hearing from those parties who insist that Russia didn't hack, that it was a leak, and the entire story was fabricated by Clinton's team and Obama was part of the scheme.  

Yup.  


"The timing of the indictment given the upcoming Helsinki summit is a powerful show of strength by federal law enforcement. Let’s presume that Mueller did not time this indictment to precede the summit by way of embarrassing Trump on the international stage. It is enough to note that he also did not hold off on the indictment for a few days by way of sparing Trump embarrassment—and that Rosenstein did not force him to. Indeed, Rosenstein said at his press conference that it is “important for the president to know what information was uncovered because he has to make very important decisions for the country” and therefore “he needs to know what evidence there is of foreign election interference.” But of course Rosenstein and Mueller did not just let Trump know. They also let the world know, which has the effect—intended or not—of boxing in the president as he meets with an adversary national leader.

Put less delicately: Rosenstein has informed the president, and the world, before Trump talks to Putin one-on-one that his own Justice Department is prepared to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, in public, using admissible evidence, that the president of the Russian Federation has been lying to Trump about Russian non-involvement in the 2016 election hacking." 


https://www.lawfareblog.com/russia-indictment-20-what-make-muellers-hacking-indictment

eta - The Lawfare article explains both the technical and legal aspects of yesterday's indictments. 

"In mid-June 2016, when the Democrats publicly acknowledged that they had been hacked, the indictment alleges that the conspirators created the online persona Guccifer 2.0, which they described as a “lone Romanian hacker” to undermine claims of Russian responsibility for the hacks. Interestingly, the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account followed one of this article’s authors on Twitter that summer:"



Trump will meet with Putin and, in his typical foot in the mouth style, give open mike assurances about post election collusion possibilities.  



In exchange for sanctions relief? 

"Trump says he may ask Putin to extradite intelligence agents" 

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/trump-says-he-may-ask-putin-to-extradite-intelligence-agents

It's a win for both Trump and Putin.


Of course, that's it !  He delivers the body bags, the then they go off to lunch to discuss Hillary and her next campaign failure.  Perfect together.  Better yet.....




Of course, that's it !  Trump delivers the body bags, then they both go off to lunch and formulate actions plans to deal with extradition,  Hillary, her next campaign failure and Trump's 2020 victory. Trump World announces two new hotels in Moscow - Putin the financial partner.  Perfect together.  The best yet to come:  a post luncheon agreement photo op with a misspelled reset button!  The comrade is loving it.  




Ok, here another look at the indictments, which reminds everyone that indictments are not evidence and evidence will probably never be presented.  The author says this indictment is "essentially a political and not a legal document."


Clinging to Collusion: Why Evidence Will Probably Never Be Produced in the Indictments of ‘Russian Agents’

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/07/14/clinging-to-collusion-why-evidence-will-probably-never-be-produced-in-the-indictments-of-russian-agents/

excerpt:

". . .Clinging to ‘Collusion’

The lack of evidence that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia has never stopped Democrats and their media outlets from believing unnamed U.S. intelligence sources for two years about such collusion. “Collusion” is the title of a best-selling book about the supposed Trump-Russia conspiracy to steal the election, but such a charge is not to be found.

The indictment excluding collusion also undermines the so-called Steele dossier, a work of opposition research paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign masquerading as an intelligence document because it was compiled by a former MI6 agent. The memos falsely claimed, it turns out, that Trump’s people started colluding with Russia years before he became a candidate.

But even after Friday’s indictments failed to charge anyone from Trump’s team, the Democratic media continued to insist there was collusion. A New York Times story, headlined, “Trump Invited the Russians to Hack Clinton. Were They Listening?,” said Russia may have absurdly responded to Trump’s call at 10:30 a.m. on July 27, 2016 to hack Clinton’s private email server because it was “on or about” that day that Russia allegedly first made an attempt to hack Clinton’s personal emails, according to the indictment, which makes no connection between the two events.

If Russia is indeed guilty of remotely hacking the emails it would have had no evident need of assistance from anyone on the Trump team, let alone a public call from Trump on national TV to commence the operation.

Instead of Trump operatives, the indictments name 12 Russians, allegedly agents from the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency. The agents “knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other, and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury (collectively the ‘Conspirators’), to gain unauthorized access (to ‘hack’) into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” the 29-page indictment says.

“Starting in at least March 2016, the Conspirators used a variety of means to hack the email accounts of volunteers and employees of the U.S. presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton (the ‘Clinton Campaign’), including the email account of the Clinton Campaign’s chairman,” the indictment says.


Obvious Timing

The timing of the announcement was clearly intended to embarrass Trump as he was meeting the Queen and to undermine his upcoming meeting with Putin on July 16. The indictments may also have been meant to embarrass Russia two days before the World Cup final to be held in Moscow.

Pressure was immediately brought on Trump to cancel the summit in light of the indictments, which may have been the main goal in the timing of their announcement. “Glad-handing with Vladimir Putin on the heels of these indictments would be an insult to our democracy,” Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement less than an hour after the indictments were announced. “President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won’t interfere in future elections,” Schumer said.

With no apparent irony, The New York Times reported, “The timing of the indictment … added a jolt of tension to the already freighted atmosphere surrounding Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Putin. It is all but certain to feed into the conspiratorial views held by the president and some of his allies that Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors are determined to undermine Mr. Trump’s designs for a rapprochement with Russia.” . . .


CrowdStrike’s Role

The indictment makes clear any evidence of an alleged hack of the DNC and DCCC computers did not come from the FBI, which was never given access to the computers by the DNC, but instead from the private firm CrowdStrike, which was hired by the DNC. It is referred to as Company 1 in the indictment.

“Despite the Conspirators’ efforts to hide their activity, beginning in or around May 2016, both the DCCC and DNC became aware that they had been hacked and hired a security company (“Company 1”) to identify the extent of the intrusions,” the indictment says.

The indictment doesn’t mention it, but within a day, CrowdStrike claimed to find Russian “fingerprints” in the metadata of a DNC opposition research document, which had been revealed by DCLeaks, showing Cyrillic letters and the name of the first Soviet intelligence chief. That supposedly implicated Russia in the hack.

CrowdStrike claimed the alleged Russian intelligence operation was extremely sophisticated and skilled in concealing its external penetration of the server. But CrowdStrike’s conclusion about Russian “fingerprints” resulted from clues that would have been left behind by extremely sloppy or amateur hackers—or inserted intentionally to implicate the Russians.

One of CrowdStrike’s founders has ties to the anti-Russian Atlantic Council raising questions of political bias. And the software it used to determine Russia’s alleged involvement in the DNC hack, was later proved to be faulty in a high-profile case in Ukraine, reported by the Voice of America.

The indictment then is based at least partially on evidence produced by an interested private company, rather than the FBI. . . "


Why do you think Friday's indictments were meant to be the complete summation of the entire case, and not simply another piece of a larger puzzle?


tom said:
Why do you think Friday's indictments were meant to be the complete summation of the entire case, and not simply another piece of a larger puzzle?

 Can only go on what we have now.  Also, the timing of these indictments right before Trump is to meet with Putin.  Troubling.


nan said:


tom said:
Why do you think Friday's indictments were meant to be the complete summation of the entire case, and not simply another piece of a larger puzzle?
 Can only go on what we have now.  Also, the timing of these indictments right before Trump is to meet with Putin.  Troubling.

No. What's troubling is that Trump is meeting with Putin with no agenda (that we know of anyway).



nan said:


tom said:
Why do you think Friday's indictments were meant to be the complete summation of the entire case, and not simply another piece of a larger puzzle?
 Can only go on what we have now.  Also, the timing of these indictments right before Trump is to meet with Putin.  Troubling.

And if the indictments were issued after Trump's meeting then he'd be accused of having blindsided the president.


So, to recount the bidding, this is what we have: 

Russia Hacked the DNC: 

  - Intelligence Community Assessment - Obama administration 

 - Intelligence Community - Trump administration (including Pompeo)

- Senate Intelligence Committee - Bipartisan 

- Mueller indictment 

-Trey Gowdy

Russia didn't hack the DNC: 

-Trump ? 

-Nunes? 

-Conspiracy theorists


 John Bolton said today "I find it hard to believe" that Putin didn't know about Russian interference. Bolton emphasizes that when he met with Putin, Putin was very careful to say the "Russian state" didn't interfere. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/find-hard-putin-didnt-russian-interference-us-election/story?id=56586272

I noted the same back in June 2017: 

"Interesting choice of words used by both Putin and Assange: 


P. 13 of the Report: (referring to the Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Interference in the Election)

"In early September, Putin said publicly it was important 
the DNC data was exposed to WikiLeaks, calling the 
search for the source of the leaks a distraction and 
denying Russian STATE LEVEL involvement." 

I checked news sources, and those are exactly the words that Putin used. "State level" involvement would not include cutouts. 

In his interview with Assange, Hannity asked the following: 

"Can you say to the American people that you did not get the information 
about the DNC and John Podesta's emails from RUSSIA OR

ANYBODY ASSOCIATED WITH RUSSIA?" 

Assange tried to finesse his response and said: 

"Our source is not the RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT and it is 

not a STATE PARTY." 

Assange, like Putin, by using the description he did, does not deny that Russia may have used a cutout. Hannity let this slide, which is not surprising. "

https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/former-us-intelligence-analysts-cia-allegations-of-email-hacking-are-baseless?page=next&limit=1020#discussion-replies-3354568


The indictment said that Assange received the DNC and Podesta hacked emails from Guccifer 2.0  Guccifer 2.0 is not technically the Russian government or a state party. 




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