erik lundegaard

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Saturday July 14, 2018

12 Russian Intelligence Officers Indicted

Trump balloon baby

The indictments were announced as Pres. Trump was in the midst of a European trip involving meetings with NATO leaders, British Prime Minister Teresa May, the Queen of England and Putin.

“Today is actually a significant moment in American history. We‘ve only had 45 presidents. And here we now know that one of them was elected with the explicit and intentional help of a foreign power, in violation of American law, with the aggressive and open support of the candidate who was the beneficiary of those crimes.”

—Jeffrey Toobin, last night on Anderson Cooper 360, in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller issuing a 29-page indictment on 12 Russian intelligence officers, charging them in the hacking of the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. A good piece and podcast on the indictments can be found at LawFareBlog.

A lot of the above is already known, or assumed, but we get some interesting details:

  1. By the end of June 2016, Russian military intelligence (GRU) had hacked into at least 33 computers in the DNC orbit.
  2. Though the DNC hired a cybersecurity agency, malware remained on some computers until at least October.
  3. The conspirators created an online persona, Guccifer 2.0, a “lone Romanian hacker,” in order to undermine and misdirect claims of Russian responsibility.
  4. By August, Guccifer 2.0 received and responded to requests for intel from:
    1. a U.S. congressman
    2. a reporter regarding Black Lives Matter
    3. “a person who was in regular contact with senior members” of the Trump presidential campaign
  5. On July 22, 2016, the government asserts, Wikileaks released more than 20,000 emails and documents stolen from the DNC network by the conspirators and “did not disclose Guccifer 2.0’s role in providing them.”

Plus, as they say, much, much more. And more to come. At the least, the names of the congressman, reporter, and Trump presidential campaign contact.

BTW: I highlighted the above in Toobin's quote because as I heard it I was thinking this charge might relate to new info from the Mueller indictments. It doesn‘t. It relates, I assume, to Trump’s July 2016 public declaration that Russia hack Hillary's emails. Toobin is tying it all together. The bow isn't neat yet—I doubt it will ever be, even Watergate remained messy—but it's not looking good for Trump. Which means it's looking good for the rest of us. 

Posted at 03:58 AM on Saturday July 14, 2018 in category Politics