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Post by goldenbucky on Oct 30, 2017 8:13:08 GMT -5
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Post by buckybasser on Oct 30, 2017 9:00:35 GMT -5
MEH. A collection of I.R.S. reporting, registered agent and foreign banking crimes.
I worked for a law firm that founded foreign limited liability companies (mostly in Nevis) and carried out various foreign banking & insurance transactions.
Manafort is either really shady or had awful legal advice. I would have caught many of these things on my first day in the firm.
The first round better progress much faster or everyone will leave the arena aside from the radical extremist left Trump haters and their media lap dogs.
Remember - this is about Trump colluding with Russia to win the election.
>O
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Post by goldenbucky on Oct 30, 2017 9:44:35 GMT -5
Mueller was tasked with overseeing the investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials. Yes, Manafort avoided taxes...as part of a conspiracy against the United States in which he failed to register as a foreign agent while working for Russian (Putin's) interests. A review of the charges reveals much more than run-of-the-mill sloppiness is on the table here. Just unsealed now: On Oct 5, Trump campaign foreign policy advisor pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. |
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 30, 2017 15:39:43 GMT -5
MEH. A collection of I.R.S. reporting, registered agent and foreign banking crimes. LOL, wishful thinking! Just in case you missed the point, the WP has a helpful article: The one-two punch delivered Monday by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — an indictment of President Trump’s former campaign chairman and a guilty plea from a former campaign adviser — is designed to send a powerful message to everyone else caught up in the probe: the prosecutors aren’t bluffing. “This is the way you kick off a big case,’’ said Patrick Cotter, a white-collar defense lawyer in Chicago who once worked as a federal prosecutor in New York alongside Andrew Weissmann, who is spearheading the prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates... Cotter pointed to several details in the Manafort indictment that suggest how steep a climb it will be to beat the charges. First, $18 million in alleged money laundering carries the likelihood of many years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Second, the charges may be tough to defend because they involve not reporting bank accounts on tax forms for multiple years. And finally, the indictment goes out of its way to kneecap [the Newark boy in me reveled at the use of this as a verb!] a standard defense argument in such cases — that the defendant got bad advice from their accountant. The indictment charges that Manafort wrote specifically to his accountant that he did not have such accounts... As important as the Manafort indictment is, the Papadopoulos plea “is a big deal,’’ said Peter Zeidenberg, a former federal prosecutor with expertise in national security, that “goes much closer to the issue of collusion.’’ And the fact that he’s been cooperating for three months is important, too, he said. “Who else is cooperating that we don’t know about? That’s what people in the White House need to be worried about.’’ Jay Nanavati, a former Justice Department tax prosecutor, said the filing of the indictment shows that so far, prosecutors have “not been able to convince Manafort to cooperate, but this is still how you start moving up the ladder in any organization.’’ What’s striking about the indictment, Nanavati said, is the number of people who worked for Manafort — accountants, lawyers and others — who provided key evidence against him... |
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 30, 2017 16:49:26 GMT -5
How Fox "covered" this story, which was somewhat less full-throatedly than the months'-long all-day all-night series "Hilary and Ben Ghazi," which led to 0 indictments: The news that Donald Trump's former campaign head had turned himself over to the FBI was just minutes old on Monday morning when "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade posed a question that was probably on the minds of many viewers. "Will you please tell us what else is happening in the news?"...Kilmeade and his two "Fox & Friends" co-hosts Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt did not ignore the news, of course. But they didn't abandon their role as Trump boosters, either... And throughout the day, Fox News' on-air reporting on the Manafort indictment was often followed by segments about the Clinton campaign's role in funding the infamous dossier of allegations about Trump and Russia. Besides devoting time to other topics, "Fox & Friends" also worked to spin the indictment news. Kilmeade, for one, assured viewers that "just because you're indicted doesn't mean you're guilty of anything," which is true as a matter of law and principle, of course, but bore a different meaning in the way he said it. And the three hosts of "Fox & Friends" brought on Kellyanne Conway, who resumed the White House's efforts to divert attention to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
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Post by buckybasser on Oct 30, 2017 17:43:45 GMT -5
Please stop with FOX News! For one million times now - I do not watch FOX News because it is TOO LIBERAL!
Sheesh - I listen to A.M. talk radio or go online for all of my news. My preferred A.M. radio hosts also think FOX News is way TOO LIBERAL!
I do like Tucker Carlson & the new FOX(Y) host Laura Ingraham, so perhaps I will tune in more often?
I cannot stomach Hannity - about as dumb as they come - as I have also said one million times now.
If you think I forgot about the Mueller charges, nope... MEH... MEH... MEH... MEH...
I both investigated crimes for the federal government and also set up tax, business & investment strategies involving offshore entities while in the private legal sector.
I would have sent a certified letter telling Mr. Manafort to seek other counsel if he would not comply with I.R.S. foreign agent & reporting requirements.
I would have copied relevant sections of the Internal Revenue Code for Mr. Manafort and attached them to the disengagement letter.
But Still... MEH! Where is the Trump Collusion Professor?
Short of that charge, pack your bags for Canada and declare an end of liberalism in the U.S. forever.
>O
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 30, 2017 19:59:51 GMT -5
Please stop with FOX News! For one million times now - I do not watch FOX News because it is TOO LIBERAL!
Had nothing to do with you, for crying out loud. What are you, Trump? Is everything about you??? By the way, just where IS jon today? |
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 30, 2017 20:30:45 GMT -5
If you read the indictment it's clear that they are focusing on money laundered through entities on Cyprus. This is significant because the Bank of Cyprus, though which these transactions almost certainly would have been channeled, was during the period covered by the indictment, had a board chairman who was a former KGB colleague of Putin's and five other Russians. One might say this is oddly convenient. More significant is this: "Prosecutors convinced a federal judge to require a lawyer for Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates to testify before the grand jury investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election, a court ruling unsealed on Monday showed...Lawyers for Manafort and Gates fought the prosecution's drive to intrude on attorney-client communications. But Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that an exception, which involves using a lawyer to commit crime or fraud, applied to contacts with an attorney who helped respond to inquiries about why the pair had not filed foreign-agent lobbying registrations with the Justice Department." Most of the evidence they gave the judge has been redacted, but the thrust is that Manafort and Gates either mislead the attorney, or conspired with them, in responding to government inquiries on his work in Ukraine. The article quotes NYU law professor Steven Gellers: "The implications of this decision are significant. First, a judge has decided that the clients were committing a crime or fraud and using a lawyer to do it. So that tells us something about the strength of the OSC’s evidence. The OSC had the burden of proof and it met it," Gillers said. "Further, once you can pierce the privilege, there’s no telling what information you can go on to discover. This decision will be useful in other contests to discover lawyer-client communications, even communications with different law firms, if any." The decision actually was handed down a couple of weeks ago and just made public today. To paraphrase Winston Churchill: We are not at the end. We are not even at the beginning of the end. But we are at the end of the beginning. |
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Post by buckybasser on Oct 31, 2017 3:34:08 GMT -5
Let us take a break from Trump hatred & biased sources to consider a well-reasoned opinion on the charges from a mainstream moderate publication.
The Daily Caller suggests Mueller's charges against Manafort are to distract from the misdeeds of himself and his lackeys like James Comey.
Thinking people agree. Mueller should have been fired when he put together his staff of HRC/BHO radicals.
Show collusion with Trump now or shut this charade down.
>O
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 31, 2017 8:36:20 GMT -5
The Daily Caller suggests Mueller's charges against Manafort are to distract from the misdeeds of himself and his lackeys like James Comey. Please stop. You are embarrassing yourself now. And as Moderator, some of that embarrassment rubs off on me. |
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 31, 2017 8:53:02 GMT -5
Anne Applebaum explains how Manafort imported Russian-style politics to America: "Manafort was first invited to work in Ukraine in 2004, by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. But Manafort left a real mark in 2006, when he brought dozens of American political consultants to Ukraine to assist in an ethnically charged election that pit Russian and Ukrainian speakers against one another, in an attempt to help Russia retain influence over the country. In 2008, he helped run an anti-NATO campaign, opposing Ukraine’s membership in the transatlantic alliance. In 2010, he was one of several advisers — the others were mostly Russians — who helped remake the image of Viktor Yanukovych, the ex-con whom the Russian government then supported for president of Ukraine. Yanukovych charged the sitting government with corruption, declared that the election would be 'rigged' and finally won. "All of this experience came in handy in 2016. The exploitation of ethnic tension; the dislike of NATO; the constant talk of opponents’ corruption, whether warranted or not; the shouting about falsified elections — these were Trump tactics, too. Several other things about Yanukovych — who was eventually chased out of his own country — stand as a warning. He was an “anti-elite” candidate who proved far more corrupt than the existing elite. He used his public office for private gain. And he sought to undermine Ukraine’s constitution, first subtly and then openly." All of that is bad enough, but it's only a piece of a potentially more fundamental issue that Applebaum identifies: American-Russian convergence at the top: "For a long time now, a part of the U.S. political and business class has been merging, ideologically and aesthetically, with its post-Soviet counterparts. The use of shell companies and Cypriot bank accounts; the over-the-top spending on clothes and houses; the profoundly cynical manipulation of ethnic or racial divides to win elections — these behaviors are now common to a particular set of sleazy operators on two continents. If this indictment is correct, Manafort is the living embodiment of this Russian-American convergence. And Trump, of course, is its apotheosis." That's the scary part to me. |
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 31, 2017 9:15:52 GMT -5
The big picture, from Michelle Goldberg:So here’s where we are. Trump put Manafort, an accused money-launderer and unregistered foreign agent, in charge of his campaign. Under Manafort’s watch, the campaign made at least two attempts to get compromising information about Clinton from Russia. Russia, in turn, provided hacked Democratic emails to WikiLeaks. Russia also ran a giant disinformation campaign against Clinton on social media and attempted to hack voting systems in at least 21 states. In response to Russia’s election meddling, Barack Obama’s administration imposed sanctions. Upon taking office, Trump reportedly made secret efforts to lift them. He fired the F.B.I. director James Comey to stop his investigation into “this Russia thing,” as he told Lester Holt. The day after the firing, he met with Russia’s foreign minister and its ambassador to America, and told them: “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” We’ve had a year of recriminations over the Clinton campaign’s failings, but Trump clawed out his minority victory only with the aid of a foreign intelligence service. On Monday we finally got indictments, but it’s been obvious for a year that this presidency is a crime.
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 31, 2017 10:24:04 GMT -5
Here's something they're no doubt fretting over in the WH today:
Papadopoulos has been working with Mueller’s team for three months now, and he is described in court documents as a “proactive cooperator.”
Former public defender and professor Seth Abramson explains why that term is probably bad news for others in Trump’s orbit: “Prosecutors often require a defendant to perform cooperative services for the government well in *advance* of his or her formal plea,” he tweeted. “The reason for this is that — via both ‘proffer’ and sometimes actual performance — a defendant must show they're of value to the government. So there is *every* reason to think that Papadopoulos was wired for sound not long after his arrest on July 27th, 2017 at Dulles airport. For Papadopoulos to get his October 5th plea, one of two things had to be true: (a) the feds had already got good sound from him; or... ..(b) he'd made a sufficient proffer establishing that he *could* get good sound for them — valuable evidence — shortly after October 5th.”
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who Trump fired earlier this year, told Politico Magazine: “Hard to tell, but the George Papadopoulos guilty plea tells us (a) Mueller is moving fast (b) the Mueller team keeps secrets well (c) more charges should be expected and (d) this team takes obstruction and lying very, very seriously. That should be of concern to some people.”
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Post by goldenbucky on Oct 31, 2017 10:31:20 GMT -5
"Manafort...brought to assist in an ethnically charged election that pit Russian and Ukrainian speakers against one another...he was one of several advisers...who helped remake the image of Viktor Yanukovych, the ex-con whom the Russian government then supported for president of Ukraine...The exploitation of ethnic tension...an “anti-elite” candidate who proved far more corrupt than the existing elite." Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste... |
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Post by Old Badger on Oct 31, 2017 15:40:00 GMT -5
You have to wonder why any reporters bother to show up at Sarah Huckabee Sanders's Daily Lies Show, unless it's for the unintentional humor, as in today's installment: The White House on Tuesday sought to take credit for the arrest of a former Trump campaign aide who had repeated contacts with Russia-linked officials offering “dirt” on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — marking the latest damage control move as the Russia probe intensifies...“Papadopoulos is an example of actually somebody doing the wrong thing while the president's campaign did the right thing,” Sanders said. “All of his emails were voluntarily provided to the special counsel by the campaign, and that is what led to the process and the place that we’re in right now is the campaign fully cooperating and helping with that. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about when the documents in question had been turned over. Papadopoulos was initially interviewed as part of the FBI’s probe into Russian election meddling on Jan. 27. He was arrested in July. The Washington Post reports that Trump’s campaign handed over emails implicating Papadopoulos to the special counsel in August — after he had already been arrested... Sanders on Tuesday also defended other campaign officials who interacted with Papadopoulos, including by claiming that one official — who has been identified in news reports as campaign aide Sam Clovis — did not encourage Papadopoulos to travel to Russia. “My understanding is there wasn’t encouragement,” Sanders said. But according to the plea deal, the official who has been identified as Clovis wrote, “I would encourage you…[to] make the trip … if it is feasible.” |
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Post by Jon on Nov 1, 2017 9:12:54 GMT -5
OB, you will let us know when the witch hunt comes up with anything actually linking the Trump campaign to Russia, right? Meantime, back when the Trump:Russia hoax was just getting started there were questions raised---but never pursued by the Dem media---about Lynch's role in getting the visa for the Russian lawyer who tried to set up the Trumps. Now: ¨A Justice Department official said Clinton likely never expected her campaign’s role and finances to be uncovered and broke a host of federal laws while trying to get elected in 2016, including bringing Veselnitskaya — who was previously barred from entering the United Stated — into Manhattan for the Trump sit down… Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who spearheaded the Trump Tower meeting with the Trump campaign trio, was previously barred from entering the United Sates due to her alleged connections to the Russian FSB (the modern replacement of the cold-war-era KGB). Yet mere days before the June meeting, Veselnitskaya was granted a rare visa to enter the United States from Preet Bharara, the then U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York. Bharara could not be reached for comment and did not respond the a Twitter inquiry on the Russian’s visa by True Pundit. Federal law enforcement sources said Bharara was simply following the orders of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who lobbied the State Department to issue the disavowed Russian a B1/B2 non-immigrant visa. This permitted Veselnitskaya entry into the United States for the sole purpose of entrapping Trump associates to use as fuel to commission wiretaps, federal sources said. Veselnitskaya may have been paid as well by the U.S. government, FBI sources said…” bigleaguepolitics.com/report-hillary-set-don-jr-s-trump-tower-meeting/Of course this piece is a lot like the WP hit pieces that never ID sources, so maybe it deserves the same (lack of) confidence as the WP. Maybe it will become more relevant when Mueller finally discloses what evidence his buddy used to get the illegal wiretap warrants on the Trump campaign? He will reveal that, won't he? Any coherent response, or just snarky dismissal of the messenger? |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 1, 2017 15:22:59 GMT -5
Any coherent response, or just snarky dismissal of the messenger? Ah, jon! I see you've found a new Hillary "conspiracy" to deflect from Trump-Russia: "A new report cites a Department of Justice official claiming that Hillary Clinton and her associates set up the Don Trump Jr. meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in June 2016." Alas, your linked article does not cite the source of this "report", which is odd, given your criticisms of "WP hit pieces that never ID sources," but, hey, a foolish consistency and all that. I would snarkily dismiss the source, I'm sure, if only there were one. That aside, the entire piece is crazy. It seems to allege that Hillary set Don Jr. up by arranging a meeting with the Russian woman. But they didn't wire here? Include a camera? Left it for "he-said, she-said"? And then they didn't actually use the material, but just hoped that someone else would bring it up before the election? God, even bad spy movies aren't this dumb. Meanwhile the article somehow fails to mention that Jr. agreed to a meeting with a representative of a foreign government in an effort to influence the election. Even if Hillary had arranged for her to contact Jr. (for which there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever in the piece, other than reference to the apparently-secret "report"), that does not mitigate Jr.'s all-in response to colluding with a foreign power. So, essentially, this is not gonna help Jr. when Mueller prepares his indictment. He can't even claim entrapment because political campaigns are not government agencies. Poor Jr. As for any direct connection between the campaign and the Ruskies, two words: George Papadopoulos. You think they took a guilty plea from this guy, then turned him into a "proactive witness" for months just to strike a plea bargain? On this let me quote John McCain, member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been looking into this matter, too: "This is a centipede. More shoes will drop." |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 1, 2017 21:04:27 GMT -5
Vanity Fair has an article about impeachment fears among the WH staff. It' seems to be behind a pay wall, but Ken Meyer has a nice summary with quotations:
Five Big Revelations from Vanity Fair‘s Report on White House Impeachment Fears
by Ken Meyer | 3:29 pm, November 1st, 2017 Vanity Fair‘s Gabriel Sherman spoke to various allies in Donald Trump‘s corner, many of whom think the president should “take off the gloves” when dealing with Mueller. There was a lot to take away from the revelations of the report, so here are five of the most important considerations to keep in mind. 1. White House Staff Think Impeachment Might be Possible - The president’s aides and close confidants are starting to think of impeachment as a realistic possibility in the current state of affairs. Some have said that Trump has weakened his own positions with some of his past statements, and firing Mueller would only make matters worse for himself. According to a source, advisers in the West Wing are on edge and doing whatever they can not to be ensnared. One person close to Dina Powell and Gary Cohn said they’re making sure to leave rooms if the subject of Russia comes up. 2. Paul Manafort Indictment is a Damning Sign - Sam Nunberg says that between the charges against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, as well as George Papadopoulos‘ guilty plea, Trump’s chances of survivability will take a hit. The former Trump campaign aide is particularly worried since Trump’s approval numbers remain low, and Mueller is likely to review the Trump Organization’s dealings. “Here’s what Manafort’s indictment tells me: Mueller is going to go over every financial dealing of Jared Kushner and the Trump Organization,” said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg. “Trump is at 33 percent in Gallup. You can’t go any lower. He’s fucked.” 3. Trump’s Anger with Jared Kushner - Even though Trump is known to be steadfast in loyalty to his own family, he has reportedly become furious with the advice he’s been getting from his son in law. Various sources, former aides and media figures all seem to suggest that Jared Kushner displeased the president by not finding a way to quash Mueller’s probe by now: According to two sources, Trump has complained to advisers about his legal team for letting the Mueller probe progress this far. Speaking to Steve Bannon on Tuesday, Trump blamed Jared Kushner for his role in decisions, specifically the firings of Mike Flynn and James Comey, that led to Mueller’s appointment, according to a source briefed on the call. When Roger Stone recently told Trump that Kushner was giving him bad political advice, Trump agreed, according to someone familiar with the conversation. “Jared is the worst political adviser in the White House in modern history,” Nunberg said. “I’m only saying publicly what everyone says behind the scenes at Fox News, in conservative media, and the Senate and Congress.” 4. Steve Bannon’s Fear for Trump’s Impeachment - It’s well known that Steve Bannon doesn’t see eye to eye with Kushner, and it seems the Brietbart chief and former White House strategist is now worried that Trump is being driven into the hands of the Republican establishment. If this leads to a situation where Trump is vulnerable to impeachment, Bannon is not so sure the administration will be able to endure: Two weeks ago, according to a source, Bannon did a spitball analysis of the Cabinet to see which members would remain loyal to Trump in the event the 25th Amendment were invoked, thereby triggering a vote to remove the president from office. Bannon recently told people he’s not sure if Trump would survive such a vote. “One thing Steve wants Trump to do is take this more seriously,” the Bannon confidant told me. “Stop joking around. Stop tweeting.” “The establishment has proven time and time again they will fuck Trump over,” a Bannon ally told me. 5. The Debate on How to Neutralize Robert Mueller - There’s a consensus among Trump’s top supporters that Mueller’s investigation shouldn’t continue, though there’s an ongoing debate about how to make it stop. Bannon recommends pressuring Congress to defund or limit the scope of Mueller’s probe, though Roger Stone would prefer Trump appointing a special prosecutor who could investigate the former FBI chief’s decision making on the Uranium One deal.Stone’s choice for a special prosecutor: Rudy Giuliani law colleague Marc Mukasey or Fox News pundit Andrew Napolitano. “You would immediately have to inform Mueller, Comey, and [Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein that they are under federal investigation,” Stone said. “Trump can’t afford to fire Mueller politically. But this pushes him aside.” That last one is a laugher. Trump's facing possible impeachment, and this guy wants to make Rudy Giuliani as a special prosecutor to investigate Robert Mueller the Special Prosecutor as a way to defuse impeachment talk? I wonder what drugs he's taking?
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 2, 2017 2:43:22 GMT -5
"As the general election was taking shape last summer, the Republican National Committee initiated a series of payments to a low-profile firm started by retired CIA officers that worked closely with an ex-Russian spy.The payments attracted attention in political and intelligence circles, largely because the Virginia-based firm, Hamilton Trading Group, had particular expertise in Russia, which was emerging as a major campaign issue at the time...RNC officials now acknowledge that most of the cash — $34,100 — went toward intelligence-style reports that sought to prove conflicts of interest between Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state and her family’s foundation. The firm produced two dossiers that tried to make the case that Clinton intervened in Bulgaria and Israel, respectively, on behalf of energy companies that had donated to the Clinton Foundation, according to people briefed on the reports." linkThe head of the company lied about what they were doing for the RNC for months because (you can't make this up) “any other work we may have done for them” was subject to a nondisclosure agreement. “I’m not denying that I wasn’t totally forthcoming, but I’m telling you why,” Wickham said. “The security stuff that we did, which is legitimate, was not covered by any kind of a confidentiality agreement, so I can discuss that.” Yes, a non-disclosure agreement so the RNC could deny it was working indirectly with a former Russian spy to do opposition research on Hillary. I assume that Hannity will be devoting several nights to this lawlessness and demanding that heads roll at the RNC. AmIright? |
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Post by jon on Nov 2, 2017 9:20:14 GMT -5
so how interested are Mueller & other Russian election influence conspiracists in this? ¨Fusion GPS' statement said it had told Congress about how $168,000 was paid last year to Orbis Business Intelligence, Steele's company. The money paid to Orbis was taken from $1.2 million it received in fees and expenses from the Perkins Coie law firm, the statement said. The law firm represented the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign,...¨ww.newsmax.com/Newsfront/british-spy-paid-trump-dossier/2017/11/01/id/823512/ Of the $12 M paid to the Coie firm by Clinton, Obama, and Podesta (and Wasserman) which nobody remembers authorizing, how much more than the 168K documented here went for other illegal acts? Paging Mueller, Comey,FEC, et al. We will see. Maybe the multi-million dollar, two year plus (will it ever end?) witch hunt will eventually find or create a crime among the Trump family/campaign. Can Mueller match the Fitzgerald railroading of Scooter Libbey? Meantime, another interesting crack in the dam of Dem/media deceit. Under the bus, Hillary & Debbie. (room for Barry there too?) www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774 |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 2, 2017 9:44:38 GMT -5
so how interested are Mueller & other Russian election influence conspiracists in this? ¨ You're right, jon. There's no evidence of Russian hacking at all. That's just what this AP report says: WASHINGTON (AP) — The hackers who disrupted the U.S. presidential election had ambitions well beyond Hillary Clinton’s campaign, targeting the emails of Ukrainian officers, Russian opposition figures, U.S. defense contractors and thousands of others of interest to the Kremlin, according to a previously unpublished digital hit list obtained by The Associated Press. The list provides the most detailed forensic evidence yet of the close alignment between the hackers and the Russian government, exposing an operation that stretched back years and tried to break into the inboxes of 4,700 Gmail users across the globe — from the pope’s representative in Kiev to the punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow...Secureworks stumbled upon the data after a hacking group known as Fancy Bear accidentally exposed part of its phishing operation to the internet. The list revealed a direct line between the hackers and the leaks that rocked the presidential contest in its final stages, most notably the private emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. In the wake of the 2016 election, U.S. intelligence agencies publicly endorsed the consensus view, saying what American spooks had long alleged privately: Fancy Bear is a creature of the Kremlin. But the U.S. intelligence community provided little proof, and even media-friendly cybersecurity companies typically publish only summaries of their data. That makes the Secureworks’ database a key piece of public evidence — all the more remarkable because it’s the result of a careless mistake. Secureworks effectively stumbled across it when a researcher began working backward from a server tied to one of Fancy Bear’s signature pieces of malicious software... The Secureworks data allowed reporters to determine that more than 95 percent of the malicious links were generated during Moscow office hours — between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. The AP’s findings also track with a report that first brought Fancy Bear to the attention of American voters. In 2016, a cybersecurity company known as CrowdStrike said the Democratic National Committee had been compromised by Russian hackers, including Fancy Bear. Secureworks’ roster shows Fancy Bear making aggressive attempts to hack into DNC technical staffers’ emails in early April 2016 — exactly when CrowdStrike says the hackers broke in... Even if only a small fraction of the 4,700 Gmail accounts targeted by Fancy Bear were hacked successfully, the data drawn from them could run into terabytes — easily rivaling the biggest known leaks in journalistic history. For the hackers to have made sense of that mountain of messages — in English, Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian, Arabic and many other languages — they would have needed a substantial team of analysts and translators. Merely identifying and sorting the targets took six AP reporters eight weeks of work. The AP’s effort offers “a little feel for how much labor went into this,” said Thomas Rid, a professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He said the investigation should put to rest any theories like the one then-candidate Donald Trump floated last year that the hacks could be the work of “someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.” “The notion that it’s just a lone hacker somewhere is utterly absurd,” Rid said. |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 2, 2017 11:16:07 GMT -5
Yeah, I heard about this article. Coming from Brazille it's hilarious, and that you would cite it even moreso. What is surprising is that you're now mouthing the Bernie-bot fantasy that the primaries were "rigged" (never mind that he lost by 57 percent to 42, a trouncing, actually). Well, not so surprising, maybe. Trump and Bernie have a lot in common, especially an appeal to white resentment. |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 2, 2017 11:19:00 GMT -5
From yesterday's social media hearings: Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico, also took aim at Mr. Trump’s dismissal of the role of Russia-linked social media in his win. Mr. Heinrich challenged Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel, to acknowledge such content and the role that fake accounts linked to Russia and other misinformation had in the election. “Last month, President Trump called Russian-purchased Facebook ads a ‘hoax,’” Mr. Heinrich said. “I’ve looked at those Russian-sponsored Facebook ads. I certainly hope you’ve had a chance to review them. Are they, in fact, a hoax?” Mr. Stretch said no. “The existence of those ads were on Facebook,” he said, “and it was not a hoax.” |
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Post by jon on Nov 2, 2017 16:05:48 GMT -5
As I suggested---no coherent response. Russians may or may not have hacked a number of networks. Hillary's criminal server being one of the easier ones. But that is completely irrelevant to any Trump:Russia election collusion. Not so irrelevant is Hillary/Dnc/OFA actually funeling $$ to various foreign nationals in return for false propaganda. That is criminal. And now another former Dem heroine is to be branded a liar for telling the truth, eh? I doubt there is any intelligent, interested, adult left who does not know the Dem nomination was rigged, but that is an ethical, not legal, issue. In a week already rich with schadenfreude, we now add an ironic embarrassment for the Dem core: ACORN/SEIU/OFA www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-02/seiu-ousts-senior-leaders-for-abusive-behavior-toward-women. The feminist and female abuser party. Can't make this shit up. In the spirit of sympathy, OB, I hope you live long enough to reach some peace with Hillary's horrible loss. At least you can take heart in the huge increase in your 401K investments because Trump won, right? |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 2, 2017 16:33:27 GMT -5
As I suggested---no coherent response. Translation: You didn't agree with me, wha, wha! My 401(k) was tiny and is long spent. But now to get back to reality, it seems we now know why Trump's been blowing up about Jared of late: "President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has handed over documents to special counsel Robert Mueller in recent weeks. CNN reported Thursday that Kushner has turned over the documents as Mueller and his team begin looking into the White House adviser's role in Trump's decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey earlier this year. Kushner is not believed to be a target of Mueller's investigation, CNN reported, citing sources close to the White House. Still, that Mueller and his team are asking about Kushner in witness interviews signals that the special counsel investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election in moving closer to the president's inner circle and is also looking at actions taken by Trump administration officials in the White House." What did Jared know and when did he know it? Also, was he wired? |
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Post by jon on Nov 3, 2017 7:37:37 GMT -5
Well, if Trump or anyone close to him----this does not include PT volunteers long gone---is actually guilty of a crime then by all means prosecute them. So far, after almost two years of digging by the many Trump enemies in the ruling class, there is absolutely no evidence of anything in that range. No witch hunting & harassment of Trump will be accepted by the American people without an honest look at Hillary's lies & corruption. Thsoe days are gone.
OTOH, it appears that Hillary just admitted, on camera, a crime in buying phony information from a foreign national (both Brit & Russian) and lying in her campaign finance reports. And, if you look beyond th WP and NYT, there is a bit of pressure mounting on her obvious email crimes and the whole U-One scam. Is D Brazile fronting for Obama in throwing Hillary & Debbie under the bus?
I remain convinced that Jeff Sessions is the key to any real justice being done and so far it looks like he is a long-term Swamp creature, of just a well-intentioned nice guy who has been led to go native in the corrupt DOJ. If there remains a core of integrity in the corrupt FBI that would help too, but it is quite possible that the Comey/Mueller deep state mafia is more devoted to protecting FBI corruption than the Clintons. One is permanent, the other temporary. If that is the case, your heroine is dead meat. She may well be that regardless.
Come on, OB. In a couple days it will be afull year---time to put away the mourning clothes & hatred and start looking forward. Enjoy your Trump derived increased freedom & prosperity and begin trying to rebuild the Dem party. It needs all the help it can get, and that will not be coming from the Clintons.
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 3, 2017 11:55:39 GMT -5
So far, after almost two years of digging by the many Trump enemies in the ruling class, there is absolutely no evidence of anything in that range. No witch hunting & harassment of Trump will be accepted by the American people without an honest look at Hillary's lies & corruption. Thsoe days are gone. OTOH, it appears that Hillary just admitted, on camera, a crime in buying phony information from a foreign national LOL! No evidence? And then you think it's a "crime" to buy information from a foreign national? Wow, what planet do you live on? |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 4, 2017 11:06:07 GMT -5
Another Trumpist exposed for lying about Russia: "WASHINGTON — Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, met Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow, according to testimony he gave on Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee. Shortly after the trip, Mr. Page sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing insights he had after conversations with government officials, legislators and business executives during his time in Moscow, according to one person familiar with the contents of the message. The email was read aloud during the closed-door testimony. "The new details of the trip present a different picture than the account Mr. Page has given during numerous appearances in the news media in recent months and are yet another example of a Trump adviser meeting with Russians officials during the 2016 campaign. In multiple interviews with The New York Times, he had either denied meeting with any Russian government officials during the July 2016 visit or sidestepped the question, saying he met with 'mostly scholars.'” Stone knows it's one thing to lie to the media, but quite another to lie under oath to Congress. There will be lots more of this, unless/until Trump closes it all down and goes full Putin. |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 6, 2017 1:39:33 GMT -5
The NYT has a story up about a Russian billionaire who's a big player in Silicon Valley, including major stakes in Facebook and Twitter. For years, the source of his funding was unknown. Now we know: "Obscured by a maze of offshore shell companies, the Twitter investment was backed by VTB, a Russian state-controlled bank often used for politically strategic deals. And a big investor in Mr. Milner’s Facebook deal received financing from Gazprom Investholding, another government-controlled financial institution, according to the documents." What's this got to do with Trump, you ask? Well, further into the article comes this: "Among Mr. Milner’s current investments is a real estate venture founded and partly owned by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser." Time for Congress to crank up another investigation of Hillary? |
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Post by Old Badger on Nov 7, 2017 10:08:07 GMT -5
Surprise! "Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to President Trump’s campaign whose visit to Moscow during the election has drawn scrutiny, sent an email to fellow Trump aides during his trip describing “a private conversation” with a senior Russian official who spoke favorably of the Republican candidate, according to records released late Monday by congressional investigators. Page also wrote that he had been provided “incredible insights and outreach” by Russian lawmakers and “senior members” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration during the trip. The email appeared to contradict earlier statements by Page, who had said he had only exchanged brief greetings with the senior Russian official, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, after he delivered a speech at a Russian university."
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