Thirteen Russian nationals have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of interfering in the 2016 presidential election — including supporting Donald Trump's campaign and "disparaging" Hillary Clinton, special counsel Robert Mueller announced Friday.
The indictments — part of Mueller's ongoing investigation — are the first tied directly to Russian meddling in the race for the White House.
"Some defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities," the indictment says.
Some of those charged also "posted derogatory information" about candidates in the Republican primaries, including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and supporting Bernie Sanders and Trump. By the time of the general election, the Russians' efforts included "supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton," the indictment says.
At a press conference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the defendants allegedly "conducted what they called 'Information Warfare' against the United States, with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general."
Damn!
Rosenstein also stated that there is no allegation in this indictment that these activities changed the outcome of the election.
The key phrase here is "in THIS indictment."
However some on the Right are taking this to mean that Trump is free and clear, while I know nothing could be further from the truth.
Trump himself jumped on the fact that the Russians launched their campaign in 2014.
Of course the problem with that is that Trump started talking about his presidential run way back in 2013.Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2018
Mr. Trump, you told the Russians you'd be running for president in Moscow in November 2013—and indeed it was that declaration that led to the anti-U.S. campaign in early 2014. Cohen had made clear by mid-2013 you were running; you confirmed it to the Agalarovs and Yulya Alferova. https://t.co/UyjT9QMqbE— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) February 16, 2018
I think through this indictment is the first time that we are learning that the Russians actually had boots on the ground here in American during this time period, and were not simply conducting an online election interference campaign.
The time period in which they really ramped things up by the way, the summer of 2016, also coincides with Trump asking Russia to release Hillary's emails, and with his son meeting with Russian operatives in Trump Tower.
And while the Russian operation focused mainly on the easily manipulated deplorables in order to help Trump win, they also used other methods of damaging Hillary Clinton's chances.
Courtesy of Vox:
Friday afternoon, the Justice Department released an indictment that’s part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The indictment outlines the lengths Russia went to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton — including by supporting Bernie Sanders (and, later, Jill Stein).
The Russian operations on social media were meant to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton and other candidates, including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. And they were supposed to support Sanders and Trump.
“Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them),” they were directed, according to the indictment.
So once again I have to remind people that the ONLY way you know the Russians did not manipulate you in some way is if you voted for Hillary Clinton, because that was the ONE person they were desperate to see defeated.
And look, they were successful.
The Russians wanted to see America destroyed, just like ISIS and just like Al Qaeda, the only difference is that they came up with the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.
'Something was weird': Inside the Russian effort to bamboozle Florida
ReplyDeleteThe operation in the nation’s largest swing state was in a class by itself.
The scathing indictment unsealed Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller outlines a multi-state scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. But the document makes clear that the operation in Florida, the nation’s largest swing state, was in a class by itself.
The indictment is packed with details of how Russian nationals duped Donald Trump campaign volunteers and grass-roots organizations in Florida into holding rallies they organized and helped fund with foreign cash. And Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio himself was a target of an effort to “denigrate” him and several other presidential candidates.
...In the charging documents, Mueller noted specific instances when Russian nationals interacted directly with Trump campaign staff, who were oblivious to the fact they were being hoodwinked by Russian agents.
“In or around August 2016, defendants and their co-conspirators used false U.S. personas to communicate with Trump campaign staff involved in local community outreach,” read the indictment.
The interactions were part of planning events that were collectively called “Florida Goes Trump” rallies, and held throughout the state. Russians also helped organize some of the most recognizable anti-Hillary Clinton displays of the election cycle in Florida.
“For example, defendants and their co-conspirators asked one U.S. person to build a cage on on a flatbed truck … and another U.S. person to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform,” the indictment read.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/16/mueller-indictment-russia-florida-interference-416255
Florida was one of the three states the Russians were told to target but a helpful American totally clueless as to who they were talking to.
DeleteColorado, Virginia and Florida.
I seem to recall there was quite a bit of hanky panky going on in Florida.
I read of people who requested absentee ballots and didn't get them. A few drove or flew home just to vote against Trump.
I also heard a report about possible missing absentee ballots as the number being returned was way lower than those sent out.
Of course, that wasn't all. There were those servers in North Carolina that were wiped AFTER they were subpoenaed as evidence in an election tampering case. Ooops.
Trump is as creepy as they come...that photo shows him to be a jerk! Just look at how he's shown himself to be - especially this past year! God help all of us!
ReplyDeleteImpeachment is the only answer - treason, lying, fraud, money laundering, and on and on!!! Plenty of reasons, Republicans in Congress. Get your asses in gear and show you actually know how to do something that is worthy of our paying your salaries!
If traitor trump has been telling us that his buddy putin said there was no meddling,so there wasn't any,how come he is telling us now the meddling began in 2014?
ReplyDeleteI wonder what happen to the russian ambassador that trump was giving our secrets to,since his recall to Moscow? Cement shoes?
Still waiting for melanomia to be recalled to Moscow, wonder what other KGB agents donnie slept with
ReplyDeleteShe won't be recalled. She has the KGB right with her, in the White House, in the form of her parents! Remember, her father was a high-ranking communist party official. Once you are that high up, you will not get out and simply 'stop being an operative'.
Delete.
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"So once again I have to remind people that the ONLY way you know the Russians did not manipulate you in some way is if you voted for Hillary Clinton, because that was the ONE person they were desperate to see defeated."
ReplyDeleteOnce again, you have shown you are basically just a Hillary lover with no clue.
No. you are the one with no clue. In fact, you're an idiot. Reading comprehension and critical thinking skills don't exist for you.
DeleteStill spouting the Russian talking points 4:41?
DeleteNot everyone that voted for Sanders was influenced by the Russians. You can't substantiate blanket statements like that.
DeleteThat is like saying all black people are thugs or all Mexicans are rapists.
Bernie ran on a populist platform just like Trump. But that is where the similarity ended. Smear him all you like, but Bernie presented some ideas people were waiting for. Like free college tuition and universal healthcare and affordable prescriptions. Those were Russian Trolls making shit up.
I've made no mistake I voted for Bernie in the primaries. By the time my state voted it was moot as Hillary had already won. But I wanted to send a message that I did not rubber stamp her or the Democratic Party. That there were issues not being addressed.
I did vote for her in the election because, well, TRUMP. You would have to be a complete and utter idiot to not see where voting for Trump would lead us. While I wasn't an anyone but Trump voter I still don't think Hillary was the best candidate. She was FLAWED.
I would have loved to have had an opportunity to vote for Al Franken for President in 2016 but oh well.
I think Franken would have won, no matter what the Russians did.
No candidate is perfect, mialuippa. Hillary Clinton was by far the mist qualified candidate EVER to run for president. Bernie had big ideas but no concrete ideas on how to accomplish them. He wasn't fit to carry Hillary's water.
DeleteShe absolutely was the most qualified. I'm not disputing that. But she wasn't the most electable. you have to have both.
DeleteBernie had plenty of ideas and no, didn't have a plan to implement them but neither did Trump and people voted for that moronic windbag. Bernie recognized the way the wind was blowing and Hillary didn't. Hillary was an intellectual, not a populist. It doesn't do you any good to be the most qualified person on the planet when you come in second.
What we had was the polar opposites.
A qualified candidate that it would be difficult to elect running against an electable candidate that was the most unqualified doofus on the planet.
If the Democrats had run a populist candidate that was both qualified and electable, we wouldn't be where we are now. I think that would have been Franken but there were probably of others. They just didn't want to rock the party boat by challenging the heir apparent. It was Hillary's "turn."
Tim Kaine never crossed my mind and in my opinion was a lousy choice for VP.
I don't think Joe Biden would have won against Trump either. Too Gerald Fordish and in some ways too nice. He had some baggage that would have been used against him. I doubt he'd be spared so soon after Beau's passing.
I wish Ted Lieu could run in 2020 but alas, he is not a native born U.S. citizen.
LOL. I called it!
ReplyDeleteOT:
Trump stopped briefly on his way to a long weekend at Mar-A-LaGOFUCKYOURSELF to make a pretense of caring.
His comments were a reboot of his usual spiel, praising first responders and medical staff. You know the drill. Wonderful job. Wonderful. Incredible job. Just incredible. The job they've done is incredible. Aren't they great? Don't we have the best? Sometimes I think it's his standard Miss America Pageant speech just redressed for the current occasion, no matter what it is. Like his "Are you having a good time?" to hurricane victims.
Of course he walked away when reporters asked him if he was going to do anything about guns.
Fucking Moron COWARD.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-florida-shooting-visit_us_5a877aa3e4b00bc49f442321
Oh, and he visited the seven wounded in Broward Health North Hospital.
Obama met with the families of those that lost their lives.
Trump pops in to say high to a few that are still in the hospital recovering.
"Trump’s visit to the community is also a rare foray into an area where he’s generally not liked. The vast majority of his presidential trips have been to areas where he did well in the 2016 election.
Broward County, Florida, is quite the opposite. While Trump lost Parkland by just 5 percentage points to Democrat Hillary Clinton, he lost neighboring Coral Springs ― where many of the Stoneman Douglas students live ― and Broward County as a whole by a 2-to-1 margin."
And there you have it. Don't expect him to do anything else. After all, he did call for flags to be lowered to half mast. What else do you expect?
Let me channel a little Trump.
He is the worst president ever. The worst. As a president he is the worst. Am I right?
They should make him view the bodies, better yet photos with all the blood!
DeleteI don't think he would care.
DeleteWhat they ought to do is force him to sit in a room with all of the parents of the victims and the survivors and let them all take turns yelling at him for hours and hours.
And the third wife was with him all dressed in white. Was she playing old-fashioned nurse? I'm always amazed at how uncomfortable she looks when met with a bevy of reporters and photographers. She's posed for photographers mostly naked in the past; why the nervousness today?
DeleteBeaglemom
News is she arrived at Air Force One via a separate car. "Scheduling." I think we have a new code word.
DeleteI think she looks scared because she isn't as dumb as we think she is. She knows him and she is not only scared OF him but scared of what he might do. She knows what sets him off. This wasn't about the shooting. It's all about Mueller. I bet he is obsessing about Mueller and she can see him fraying at the ends and experiences the tantrums behind closed doors.
When she leaves the White House to either a hotel in D.C. or back to Trump Tower, that is when we really need to worry.
It seems to me that Trump was playing with the idea of being president about the time he met Melania. I remember Larry King asking her if she would like to be first lady.
ReplyDeleteI think this thing with Donald and Putin started a long time ago. The internet was a godsend to Putin to be able to reach more gullible people.
Putin's opponent in Russia was on youtube talking about how corrupt they were in his country and they shut him down. That's how crafty they have become in manipulating the internet to serve their purposes.
He registered Make America Great Again in 2012! He'd been actively thinking about a presidential run back then. Probably right after the 2011 White House Correspondents' dinner.
DeleteHe was going to run against Obama but thought better of it. Remember, this was right after Obama humiliated him at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2011. But Trump doesn't like to lose and he recognized that he'd lose if he ran against Obama and that would be doubly humiliating. So he waited for an opportunity. That was 2016, with a wide open field and so many weak, flawed and downright hated Republicans. And what a juicy carrot that he'd be running against Hillary. He would just love to beat her for so many reasons. The next best thing to beating Obama (which he'd never be able to do) would be to follow him and undo everything he did.
And that is just what Trump is doing.
(My guess is decades ago she said "no" to him when he propositioned her. Or in some other way publicly humiliated him, maybe correcting him and making him feel stupid or something. Who knows what it was? Could have been anything.)
No. I'd say the only way to know you weren't manipulated by the Russians was to not be on the mainstream social media like Facebook. Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, et al, and to not be watching the news. Not just Fox News but all of the news, especially Cable News.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible to vote for a different candidate than Hillary Clinton not based on the internet or media but based on the positions the candidates on issues and hearing them speak to those issues.
Not everyone that voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries was influenced by the Russians.
I'm sure there were Ludites voting for Trump that weren't on social media, watching TV or on the internet that felt he spoke to their issues. He toured a lot of backwoods places and made a lot of speeches.
HOWEVER, the Russians did taint our elections. They did influence the election. We simply do not know to what extend that influence effectively turned the election.
Personally, I think James Comey did more damage than the Russians did.
What the Russians did was illegal. It doesn't matter how much they tampered with our election. THEY DID IT. And they'll do it again if they are not stopped.
What is Trump doing about it? Cutting all of the budgets of departments that might be able to stop the Russians.
Worst.
President.
Ever.
Traitor.
Impeach him already.
The only way to think Drumpf was a good idea is if you are racist, uneducated, older and/or indoctrinated into a religion. No smart, educated unindoctrinated people think Drumpf was a good idea, including young children i HS heading to college.
DeleteIt really is that simple.
One more group.
DeleteThe greedy.
My Dad likely voted for Hillary, but he doesn't see Trump as that bad of a president because the only thing he cares about or pays attention to is the STOCK MARKET. And he says Trump has been great for the stock market. His opinion of Trump changed when the stock market fell last week. But it will go up when the market does. He pretty much ignores everything else. He's not religious. He's not uneducated. He's not a racist. He is old and retired and relies on his stock portfolio for income so that's pretty much all he cares about.
We have friends coming for dinner tonight. They are Trump supporters who believe the fiction that the Republican goal is to reduce the national debt. It doesn't matter to them that Republicans actually like to increase the debt and mortgage the futures of our children and grandchildren so they can take away messy things like health care, Social Security, education. These friends are glued to the GOP mantra. I just hope we can steer clear of politics tonight (we always try to). If I'm told that we should feel sorry for Trump because the media is so hard on him, I'm liable to say some things I don't want to say to these friends. Some evenings are riskier than others. I prefer the non-risky ones.
DeleteBeaglemom
"No smart, educated unindoctrinated people think Drumpf was a good idea"
DeleteOh God, is this going to be the new mantra going forward? Don't 'trust me', but PLENTY of smart educated folks voted for Trump.
Sorry. but the Democratic Party is not going to remove Trump by hating on him and certainly not his voters who for the most part are happy as clams, even if you don't know it. Put the energy towards working on platforms and candidates.
Trump is like a three year-old caught with his hand in the cookie jar but steadfastly denying being anywhere near the cookies. Whenever he denies something, the whole world knows exactly what he's done. I hope the indictments against willing US participants, from those engineering Trump's entry into the presidential foray to the Republican leaders who enabled him, start flowing now.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
When will Mueller deport malania and her family? When will trump be arrested for treason? When will fox no news be cut off from airwaves? When will the NRA be held accountable and liable for the deaths by assault weapons? Trump and his evil doers must be stopped from spending one red cent of our hard earned money on his scam and gifts to our enemies. He must pay back every penny spent on his scam. He must go to prison for the crimes that he has committed of TREASON.
ReplyDeletehey may be he can send Sarah Inkk family to Russia. go stand in bread line. karmas coming 4 U!
DeleteEnter Dotard to insist that he wants Rosenstein's head on a platter!
ReplyDelete.
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Boom. Boom. Boom. Out. Go. The.
ReplyDeleteLights. Guitar. ;)
Its Mueller time!
Microbrewers pay attention!