Comrade Trump

[old_gregg]

oh boy. i think we can all stipulate that firing someone≠nuclear war. another helpful contribution to the discussion!

[frank ryan]

New Report Says Dutch Have Absolute Proof Russia Was Behind 2016 Election Hacking

The Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant (“The People’s Paper”) has quite the intriguing story today. Apparently AIVD, the Dutch equivalent of the CIA, broke into the computer systems of a nondescript building in Moscow a few years ago. They had no idea what was there, but eventually they figured it out. It was the workplace of Cozy Bear, Russia’s most infamous hacking group:

That’s how the AIVD becomes witness to the Russian hackers harassing and penetrating the leaders of the Democratic Party, transferring thousands of emails and documents. It won’t be the last time they alert their American counterparts. And yet, it will be months before the United States realize what this warning means: that with these hacks the Russians have interfered with the American elections. And the AIVD hackers have seen it happening before their very eyes.

….The Cozy Bear hackers are in a space in a university building near the Red Square. The group’s composition varies, usually about ten people are active. The entrance is in a curved hallway. A security camera records who enters and who exits the room. The AIVD hackers manage to gain access to that camera. Not only can the intelligence service now see what the Russians are doing, they can also see who’s doing it. Pictures are taken of every visitor. In Zoetermeer, these pictures are analyzed and compared to known Russian spies.

….Access to Cozy Bear turns out to be a goldmine for the Dutch hackers. For years, it supplies them with valuable intelligence about targets, methods and the interests of the highest ranking officials of the Russian security service [which they share with the United States]….In return, the Dutch are given knowledge, technology and intelligence. According to one American source, in late 2015, the NSA hackers manage to penetrate the mobile devices of several high ranking Russian intelligence officers. They learn that right before a hacking attack, the Russians search the internet for any news about the oncoming attack.

de Volkskrant says the Dutch are pretty pissed off that our intelligence services, in an effort to prove that Russia really did interfere with the US election, have repeatedly bragged about the remarkable efforts of a “Western ally.” However, the details in this story come from both American and Dutch sources, so apparently there are at least a few folks in the Netherlands who figure they might as well brag about it themselves now that the operation is over.

If all this is true, the primary sources for our knowledge of the 2016 election hacking are the Dutch operation and the NSA penetration of Russian mobile devices. Those are some pretty good sources, and it accounts for why the US intelligence community is so certain that Russia was behind all the various hacks.

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-dr...ction-hacking/

[Moliere]

New Report Says Dutch Have Absolute Proof Russia Was Behind 2016 Election Hacking




https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-dr...ction-hacking/

I’m glad to hear the Dutch have proof more than a year after the US had proof. Way to go Dutch!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[creekster]

Comrade Trump

I’m glad to hear the Dutch have proof more than a year after the US had proof. Way to go Dutch!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Except the article says the hacking by the Dutch occurred in 2015 and that they were a primary source we relied on to conclude the Russians were behind Cozy Bear who cyber-attacked/hacked the us.

[BlueK]

I’m glad to hear the Dutch have proof more than a year after the US had proof. Way to go Dutch!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yay to my mission country!

[Uncle Ted]

New Report Says Dutch Have Absolute Proof Russia Was Behind 2016 Election Hacking




https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-dr...ction-hacking/

According to one American source, in late 2015, the NSA hackers manage to penetrate the mobile devices of several high ranking Russian intelligence officers. They learn that right before a hacking attack, the Russians search the internet for any news about the oncoming attack.

WTF, Obama! Our NSA crack hacker team had these Ruskies by the balls but didn't do anything about it? Drone strike, dude!

[Moliere]

Except the article says the hacking by the Dutch occurred in 2015 and that they were a primary source we relied on to conclude the Russians were behind Cozy Bear who cyber-attacked/hacked the us.

Oh, I don’t open frank ryan linked articles since I figure he copy/pastes the entire text.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[creekster]

Oh, I don’t open frank ryan linked articles since I figure he copy/pastes the entire text.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mother Jones has a definite POV but thats an interesting article.

[frank ryan]

Oh, I don’t open frank ryan linked articles since I figure he copy/pastes the entire text.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I never copy the whole article. I just select a few bits in hopes you'll read the rest. But I try to do more than drive-by retweets. Looks like a failed strategy.

[frank ryan]

[B]Trump Launched Campaign to Discredit Potential FBI Witnesses.The president targeted three bureau officials who could provide key testimony in the Mueller probe./B]

President Donald Trump pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.

In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, recently fired FBI Director James Comey disclosed that he spoke contemporaneously with other senior bureau officials about potentially improper efforts by the president to curtail the FBI’s investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s efforts constituted obstruction of justice.

Not long after Comey’s Senate testimony, Trump hired John Dowd, a veteran criminal defense attorney, to represent him in matters related to Mueller’s investigation. Dowd warned Trump that the potential corroborative testimony of the senior FBI officials in Comey’s account would likely play a central role in the special counsel’s final conclusion, according to people familiar with the matter.

In discussions with at least two senior White House officials, Trump repeated what Dowd had told him to emphasize why he and his supporters had to “fight back harder,” in the words of one of these officials.

In a brief conversation Friday afternoon, Dowd denied the accounts of administration officials contained in this story as “flat-out wrong,” but he also refused to discuss what details were incorrect. “My advice to the president is confidential,” he told Foreign Policy.

“You don’t know me,” Dowd added. “You don’t how I lawyer, and you don’t know what I communicated to the president and what I did not.”

While Dowd’s private advice to the president would ordinarily be protected by attorney-client privilege, Mueller might be able to probe comments that Trump made to others about that legal advice by asking him directly about it as well as anyone else he shared that advice with.

A person with direct knowledge of the matter said although Dowd explained the risks of senior FBI officials joining Comey in testifying against Trump, that information was part of a broader presentation to the president about Mueller’s investigation. It is not improper, but in fact is a duty, for an attorney to explain to a client how they are at risk, the source said. What may have been improper, however, were actions Trump took upon learning that information.

Since Dowd gave him that information, Trump — as well as his aides, surrogates, and some Republican members of Congress — has engaged in an unprecedented campaign to discredit specific senior bureau officials and the FBI as an institution.

The FBI officials Trump has targeted are Andrew McCabe, the current deputy FBI director and who was briefly acting FBI director after Comey’s firing; Jim Rybicki, Comey’s chief of staff and senior counselor; and James Baker, formerly the FBI’s general counsel. Those same three officials were first identified as possible corroborating witnesses for Comey in a June 7 article in Vox. Comey confirmed in congressional testimony the following day that he confided in the three men.

In the past, presidents have attacked special counsels and prosecutors who have investigated them, calling them partisan and unfair. But no previous president has attacked a long-standing American institution such as the FBI — or specific FBI agents and law enforcement officials.

Mueller has asked senior members of the administration questions in recent months indicating that prosecutors might consider Trump’s actions also to be an effort to intimidate government officials — in this case FBI officials — from testifying against him.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/26/...fbi-witnesses/

[frank ryan]

Trump legal team seeking precedent to avoid Mueller interview: report

President Trump’s legal team has been looking into a 20-year-old federal court order that could be used to limit or avoid an interview between Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump’s lawyers are researching a 1997 case in which a federal appeals court ruled that sitting presidents and their top advisers are protected against disclosing certain information about decision-making and official government actions.

In the case, the appeals court ruled that prosecutors who hope to override claims of executive privilege are required to show the court that they hope to obtain “important evidence” that is otherwise unobtainable.

Legal scholars told the Journal that Trump’s lawyer’s could use the case to make a potential interview with Mueller more favorable for Trump and prevent a long court fight over the process.
“This is really the only argument they can make outside of the Fifth,” Todd Presnell, an attorney who has studied presidential privilege, told the Journal. “The Fifth Amendment would be a public-relations nightmare.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...terview-report

[Uncle Ted]

Trump legal team seeking precedent to avoid Mueller interview: report




http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...terview-report

Yeah, I thought a sitting president was pretty much immune from that stuff... In other words, Mueller needs to build a case against Drumpf, present it to congress, and then congress can start up the impeachment process.

One would think if Mueller had overwhelming evidence he would have no need to interview Drumpf (rather than needing some "important evidence" that he doesn't already have) and would be giving congress a mountain of a report by now. Asking to interview Drumpf makes me wonder if Mueller is at the "grasping at straws" stage of his investigation. Maybe Mueller is just trying to drag this whole thing out hoping the mid-terms will bring more democrats into congress which would give an impeachment vote a better chance. Of course, this investigation will be costing the good tax payers a crap load of money so, dammit, some heads better roll to make it worth it!

[Uncle Ted]

Holy crap on a stick... here is some actual proof of the Russians colluding with an American politician:

Gov. Rick Scott suspends Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper


Cooper's dealings with disgraced lobbyist result in felonies, authorities say


HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Florida Gov. Rick Scott suspended Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper on Friday afternoon, one day after her arrest on three felony charges.


Cooper faces charges of money laundering, official misconduct and exceeding limits on campaign contributions, all of which are third-degree felonies. Prosecutors also charged her with soliciting contributions in a government building, which is a first-degree misdemeanor.
[...]
According to the affidavit, one of the undercover agents met with Cooper at the Flashback Diner and pledged that the contributions to Cooper's campaign would be in the form of checks from a "bunch of Russian names." Koslow later told an undercover agent that he personally handed Cooper 20 checks at a Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce fashion show.
[...]

https://www.local10.com/news/politic...yor-joy-cooper

But why would the Russians be laundering money to a democrat? I thought they liked the GOP'ers.

[Uncle Ted]

Embedded Tweet

Embedded Tweet

[frank ryan]

Hey guys, we're cool, we don't need those sanctions after all:

White House to Congress: Russia sanctions not needed now

The Trump administration informed lawmakers Monday that new Russia sanctions called for in a bipartisan bill passed last year are not necessary yet because the measure is already "serving as a deterrent."

The announcement came as lawmakers in both parties nudged the administration to implement a sanctions legislation that passed overwhelmingly in July — with only five no votes in both the House and Senate. The sanctions bill requires the imposition of penalties by Monday against entities doing "significant" business with Moscow's defense and intelligence sectors, unless Congress is notified that prospective targets are "substantially reducing" that business.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...ongress-376813