Mueller indicts 12 Russian intelligence officers for allegedly conspiring to hack 2016 U.S. presiden

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

A dozen Russian intelligence officers have been charged with conspiring to hack Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a new indictment in the probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

The 12 were members of Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, and are accused of engaging in a sustained effort to hack the computer networks of Democratic organizations and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein planned to detail the new charges at a mid-day press conference. Mueller, as has been his practice, was not expected to attend the announcement. Court records show a grand jury Mueller has been using returned an indictment Friday morning.

Mueller and a team of prosecutors have been working since May 2017 to determine if any Trump associates conspired with Russia to interfere in the election. His work had already led to charges against 20 people on crimes ranging from money laundering to lying to the FBI. Fourteen of those charged are Russians who are unlikely to ever be put on trial in the United States.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rod-rosenstein-expected-to-announce-new-indictment-by-mueller/2018/07/13/bc565582-86a9-11e8-8553-a3ce89036c78_story.html?utm_term=.c6e4d4ed8124

[montanacowboy]

1. Boy Howdy!

they said Mueller had this info for a while and was just waiting to spring it

No one knew!!!

[rurallib]

68. Springs it right before the meeting with Putin

where Trump will ask if there was any interference and Putin will say "NYET"

[firstwife]

72. My thoughts exactly!

What better time than when Drumpf is out of the country visiting allies, and right before he meets with his Russian boss. So, if the world knows this, and he meets with Putin anyway, does that make a case for treason? Asking for a friend.

[mitch96]

88. I was thinking the same thing!

He timed it perfect to bring attention to tRump,pUtin and the russian hack.. Like Comey's timing of the info on the laptop... Sometimes good, sometimes bad..
m

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Might be related to Manafort trial on 25th or foundational for further indictments coming.

1) Evidence might have to be revealed anyway for the Manafort trial, hence get the indictments out now.

2) This lays a foundation for proving collusion that used the fruits of the DNC hack. This shows that the DNC was hacked and fruit produced.

[H2O Man]

6. +1

Thank you.

[malthaussen]

36. +1

[bentornilloed]

70. Have they looked at the DNC server?

[Fred Sanders]

74. Yes. Hacked. Paragraph 4 of indictment only D's were targeted. RNCC...nope.

Then released to Republican campaign...next indictment to drop.

[CountAllVotes]

71. +1,000 !!

[calimary]

73. Excellent.

[coeur_de_lion]

80. Good explanation! n/t

[still_one]

3. This is not going to make Matt Taibbi, Julian Assange and Glenn Greenwald happy

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. I understand animus against Greenwald, but Taibbi? He has been doing hard reporting against tRump.

Insane Clown President
by Matt Taibbi

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/find-your-next-read/extracts/2017/jan/insane-clown-president-intro-by-matt-taibbi/



"One of the few journalists in America who speaks truth to power." -- Bernie Sanders

[BeyondGeography]

44. And his under-the-radar coverage of the NY-19 primary was not to be missed

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/the-battle-of-woodstock-630288/

Probably upsetting to a few people here who don't see anything wrong with the way things are but the reporting was first-rate and I agreed with his take on the whole thing, being a voter up there myself.

[QC]

45. He has at times criticized Democrats for doing things

that he also criticized Republicans for doing.

Total lack of team spirit there.

[shanny]

66. oh the horror

[still_one]

50. His views about trump are irrelevent in what I am referring to. He was claiming for a long time

there is no evidence of Russian interference, and HIS justification for it was because we were lied about WMDs in Iraq, along with other falsehoods, this is not credible. It is a bullshit argument, and completely ignored the fact the Flynn already had specific accusations against him, along with the fact that the people making those accusations did not have anything in common those saying there were saying there were WMDs in Iraq.

I cannot find the exact piece I am talking about, but this touches on the flavor of what his thoughts were

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/something-about-this-russia-story-stinks-110164/

This Washington Monthly probably expresses Taibbi's views best at the time:

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/04/04/matt-taibbis-skepticism-of-the-russian-hacking-coverage-is-all-wrong/

He has slowly evolved his position since then, which is more than I can say about Greenwald, though as things evolve and it becames more than evident, I suspect Mr. Greenwald will come out saying something to the effect that "I always knew there was Russian interference", in a similar way Greewald denied that he ever supported bush's invasion of Iraq.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

51. Thanks for clarifying and providing some interesting info. . . . nt

[still_one]

54. I am just expressing my personal impression. Of course it is always easy to throw things out when

one looks at things now verses then

[still_one]

54. I am just expressing my personal impression. Of course it is always easy to throw things out when

one looks at things now verses then

[Chicago1980]

4. LoL...

And they broke into the report of Trump meeting the queen.

[spinbaby]

17. I wonder if that was on purpose

The orange one cannot be pleased.

[LiberalArkie]

25. You know it was

[forgotmylogin]

26. Quick, is there a bunch of other stuff we can fix while he's gone? (n/t)

[irisblue]

49. Changing the locks on the WH? nt

[niyad]

61. that was my thought.

[C Moon]

63. :D

[C_U_L8R]

5. Trump needs to cancel his Putin meeting.

This conspiracy cannot stand.

[H2O Man]

7. Great point.

[C_U_L8R]

22. Trump had a heads-up, earlier this week

And he hasn't cancelled his Putin meeting ???? WTF??

[Corgigal]

28. We're going to listen to everything.

Trump but can't help to run his mouth, Putin won't care. More dirt to take down Trump. He's not a smart man.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

29. Found details (answered my own question)

Link to tweet

Brian Beutler
?Verified account @brianbeutler

Rosenstein briefed Trump earlier this week. “The president is fully aware of the department’s actions today.”

Now consider Republican behavior over the past few days.

[malthaussen]

40. No, no, surely there's no connection.

If this were not my country, I would be amused. As it is...

-- Mal

[ewagner]

42. Let me join the WTF! N/T

[C_U_L8R]

47. Welcome! There's plenty of F for all.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Also, Comrade Дональд Трамп has his summit with Putin. Getting this out now constrains tRump.

Trump can't simply say that Putin again assured him no interference and that tRump believes him.

Puts pressure on tRump to have American(s) in the room.

[Mr.Bill]

64. Sure he can.

And Fox news and his supporters will believe him.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

65. Both of which are demographically dwindling. . . nt

[Mr.Bill]

69. What has to dwindle

is the number of republicans in Congress.

[Botany]

9. Now where, when, and how did the GRU members contact team Trump, the RNC, and Fox News?

Does this rule out the 400 lbs man on his bed in his mother's basement in N.J.?

[exboyfil]

13. Third unnamed leak location

All eyes should be watching.

[YessirAtsaFact]

21. Who were these agents conspiring with?

That’s the question raised here. I bet some of these co-conspirators aren’t Russians.

Hmmm..,

[Botany]

37. During the 2016 campaign the RNC released anti Hillary talking points that were ....

.... based on information Russia got from hacking HRC and the DNC so I wonder if
any of the indicted Russians were in that information chain? I also think that Fox
News was in that loop too.

[exboyfil]

10. I think this might be timed for Putin's visit

These 12 are identified as GRU, and the hacking is alleged to be as part of their duties. It also has an unnamed third source for the release of emails (I wonder why it wasn't named).

[YessirAtsaFact]

11. Interesting timing, right before Trump meets with Putin

[jpak]

12. How is Cheeto going to take this?

Will he even bother to respond?

[turbinetree]

19. He will say its fake news........................everything is fake news

with the sexual predator ......................everything


November 2018 cannot get here fast enough...........................vote

But we will have a solution in..................

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/to?msg=2018%20Midterm%20Elections&p0=263&year=2018&month=11&day=6&hour=12&min=0&sec=0&fromtheme=election

[Harker]

59. Perhaps he'll defect.

One can hope.

[FakeNoose]

62. I'm hoping his plane will go down

...even better if it crashes inside the Arctic Circle.

[Snellius]

14. Nice timing

From Strzok's testimony yesterday it seems the FBI is very wary of Putin's connection to Trump.

[woundedkarma]

15. Specifically, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 were russian GRU operations

So, now anyone who worked with Guccifer was conspiring with russian intelligence.

Mmmm... considering what we know already, more than likely this will be used to link other people to these crimes... eventually.

[Honeycombe8]

16. A lot of counts. Press conf. BEFORE the Trump-Putin meeting, so there would be no doubt...

that Trump would not know what Russia did, according to U S investigations.

No allegation that a U S citizen committed a crime or that the election count was altered.

[YessirAtsaFact]

23. This lays the foundation for charges against Americans

Piece by piece, a case is built.

[Honeycombe8]

27. Maybe. But he went out of his way to make it clear that it did not implicate any Americans...

and just as those who are indicted are presumed innocent, it goes w/o saying that anyone who is not indicted is presumed innocent, he said.

This may be it. Indictments against the Russians and Flynn. Indictments against Manafort & maybe Cohen for other things Not sure what Gates & Pappadolous indictments were for.

But we know in our guts that Trump and his team were working with them. We have the meeting in Trump Tower, for example. The Trump team had no problem colluding with the Russians to interfere in the election.

[Sophia4]

67. I did not understand the statements in the press conference as you did.

I heard that this is just a first step and that at least two Americans were contacted by the hackers although they may not have known with whom they were in contact.

I think this point -- whether Americans are implicated -- was purposely left open.

I could be wrong, but that is what I heard.

Rosenstein especially pointed out the fact that the Russians hacked according to Trump's suggestion or instruction in July. That could or could not indicate a form of communication with the hackers.

I think it is too extreme to say "he went out of his way to make it clear that it did not implicate any Americans." That is not what I heard at all.

He left that open and hinted that Americans could still be implicated. That is my impression. Certainly, the American named Smith had some role.

[Honeycombe8]

91. He actually said something like ...

"there is nothing in these allegations that indict any American citizen."

He did not say, as you point out, that that means there will or won't be any indictments involving Americans. He also didn't say there won't be more indictments against Russians.

The press conf was only about these 12 indictments. He didn't speak about anything else, except the remarks about patriotism, they are doing their job according to the evidence and law, etc.

He also stated that the activities for THESE indictments did not indicate that they altered election results. (I'm guessing Trump asked him to say that.)

I'm convinced that the Trump team was involved, and that election results for those few areas WERE altered. I'm not sure they'd tell us, if that were the case.

[bucolic_frolic]

20. Any Russian nesting dolls inside that Orange Man Baby Blimp?

Or is it all symbolism

[erronis]

35. There's lots of room for multiple nesting dolls inside of dump's skin

Maybe there's a whole universe of Chinese, Israeli, Russian, North Korean pods inside duking it out with one another. And of course all the "friendlies". This may explain why what comes out of his mouth is complete gibberish - stinky brown noise.

[niyad]

24. such perfect timing!!

[cp]

30. K&R

[mahatmakanejeeves]

31. Here is the indictment of 12 Russian officers for election interference https://www.justice.gov/file

VeryStableHat Retweeted:

Here is the indictment of 12 Russian officers for election interference
https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download …

Link to tweet

[SamKnause]

32. What blame lies with Trump for inviting Russia to hack Hillary's e-mails ???

Will that bloated piece of shit ever be held accountable ???

Can the military, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security or any agency stop him

from meeting one on one with Putin ???

Will they bug Trump so we will know what is said ???

[malthaussen]

33. All very well and good, but...

... I sure wish he would indict a few more people we can actually bring to trial.

-- Mal

[OliverQ]

34. Anyone else kinda bummed this is only Russians?

Until some Americans, including Republican congress members face indictments nothing is going to change.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

38. Read Post #2 and #23. . . . nt

[bucolic_frolic]

39. Just a Reminder

Link to tweet

Jared Yates Sexton
?Verified account @JYSexton

Just a reminder that Trump publicly asked the DNC leakers and Russian agents to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails in July 2016.

________________

July 27 as I recall, late morning

[Cosmocat]

41. Trump calling on Russia to do this ...

[.99center]

43. "person in regular contact with senior members" of the Trump campaign

Link to tweet

[Bernardo de La Paz]

48. Has been identified as Roger Stone, later down in the replies in the tweet. . . nt

[demmiblue]

46. Heh: "400-pound guy, you are in the clear."

Link to tweet

[grantcart]

53. Time for a doughnut

[AlexSFCA]

52. is it just symbolic?

not like they can bring then for trial here....

[Bernardo de La Paz]

56. No. Read posts #2, #23, and #48. . . . nt

[Fred Sanders]

75. Symbolic...in the sense a foreign government successfully interfered in the 2016 election....is

not the meaning of the word.

Please read indictment...it is quite easy to do.

50,000 emails of the Chair of the DNCC were secretly stolen and then systematically released to damage Clinton and help Trump..

[Stuart G]

57. Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip, ...This is just the start, not the end.

A few drops before the storm hits. This happens all the time. A thunderstorm approaches and you look at the dark clouds. Clearly the storm is coming your way. Predicted and there it is.....
..So, as the clouds approach, there is a few drops before the deluge. You and I know a very strong storm is coming...but, it is just a few drips...Yes indeed....drip, drip, drip...

....more is coming in my opinion..., no I don't know nothing....as Sgt Schultz would say....

[Snellius]

58. Does the charge of treason require being at war?

All the previous Russian charges were directed at hackers. These indictments are against Russian intel officials, spys, directly connected to the Russian government, Putin. Collusion in this case would be not just with foreign persons or entities but with a foreign power.

[Nero Mero]

60. There will be more

It’s not even over.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

76. This seems lame, charging people who will never be tried.

Wake me when he charges someone named Trump or Kushner.

[Fred Sanders]

77. A foreign power stealing the Democratic parties emails and information and using

it to systemically undermine the 2016 election, AND, per previous indictment, to sow social and political discord has woken me up good!

Napping is what got us into this mess in the first place, no?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

78. A foreign power? Has the Russian government been charged?

Or just a dozen or so individual military officers whose names will be forgotten quickly?

[Fred Sanders]

79. You can't indict a sovereign state. Need a huge courtroom.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

82. If you think GRU (KGB) officers do this without direction from the top, we have tower in NYC to sell

Foreign power? The Russian government is a foreign power.

"Just individual military officers"? You've got to be kidding. Get real.

[Snellius]

84. +1 It's not just collusion with just hackers anymore but with Russian spies

These indictments set up much more serious charges.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

81. Ah. Like the wobbly middle who are still asleep until then. You should be WAKING THEM up.

In the meantime read this thread to understand how this is not lame.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

83. Since you have lots of time to sleep, read this devastating 43 item twitter thread on DU

Particularly item 33

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210865881

Then come back to us and explain how all of the items are lame. If you can. You can't, so you won't.

[Snellius]

86. Wow, Thanks nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

87. Fine, but why are only Russians charged? Item 33/34 would suggest Trump should also be charged.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

90. Instant gratification much? This is massive case & has to be done right. Don't go back to sleep. .nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

92. No worries, I haven't slept well since 11/8/2016

A night which will live in infamy.

I shouldn't expect quick results. The Whitewater investigation lasted a long time. Today was just played up to be something big, and then turned out to be a borscht-burger.

[DeminPennswoods]

85. When I heard Maddow do her opening on the 2 deep cover

Russian spies and how the FBI monitored and then caught them, I realized just how sophisticated their "spy catching" counterintelligence operation is.

I know that Mueller and his team must have so much information on what Russia did and how Trump and his entourage helped them, it was only a matter of time before everything was tied together. Mueller has now put out parts 1 and 2 of the Russia-Trump conspiracy against America. I am expecting the final chapter in fairly short order laying all the details in a final indictment.

[Timmygoat]

89. So now

Can we all begion to refer to Hillary as President Hillary, that would get the rethugs in a tizzy!

[DeminPennswoods]

93. More helpful to refer to Rs as traitors from here on

out. Because that is what every Republican who continues to support Trump and to discredit Mueller et all is - a traitor to America and democracy.

[tclambert]

94. But Trump asked Putin and Putin said, "Nyet, you won election because you are such stable genius."

Vlad didn't even crack a smile when he said it, so Trump believed it.

[onetexan]

95. For all HACKING DENIERS read this Politico article from August 2016

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/2016-elections-russia-hack-how-to-hack-an-election-in-seven-minutes-214144

and marvel at how easily the unthinkable has played out. I'm deeply worried about November elections.

[Snellius]

96. If Russians hacked DNC and passed emails to Wikileaks: They DID affect the election.

All this crap about not influencing the outcome of the election is bull. Those emails did a good deal of damage to the party, her campaign, and to her candidacy.