Trumpublicons: Foreign Influence/Grifting in '16 US Election

[seemslikeadream]

progressively stranger

Roger Stone's Secret Messages with WikiLeaks

Transcripts obtained by The Atlantic show Donald Trump's longtime confidante corresponded with the radical-transparency group.

Natasha Bertrand
4:33 PM ET

On March 17, 2017, WikiLeaks tweeted that it had never communicated with Roger Stone, a longtime confidante and informal adviser to President Donald Trump. In his interview with the House Intelligence Committee last September, Stone, who testified under oath, told lawmakers that he had communicated with WikiLeaks via an “intermediary,” whom he identified only as a “journalist.” He declined to reveal that person’s identity to the committee, he told reporters later.

Private Twitter messages obtained by The Atlantic show that Stone and WikiLeaks, a radical-transparency group, communicated directly on October 13, 2016—and that WikiLeaks sought to keep its channel to Stone open after Trump won the election. The existence of the secret correspondence marks yet another strange twist in the White House’s rapidly swelling Russia scandal. Stone and Trump have been friends for decades, which raises key questions about what the president knew about Stone’s interactions with Wikileaks during the campaign. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The depth of Stone’s relationship with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange has been closely scrutinized by congressional investigators examining whether Trump associates coordinated with Russia—or anyone serving as a cut-out for Moscow—to damage Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. Stone confirmed the authenticity of the messages, but called them “ridiculously out of context” and “a paste up.” He said that he provided the complete exchange to the House Intelligence Committee, but did not immediately respond to a request to provide his own record of the conversation to The Atlantic.

A screenshot of the exchange, which has not been previously reported, was provided to the House Intelligence Committee last year by a third-party source. The private messages confirm that Stone considered himself a “friend” of WikiLeaks, which was branded a “non-state hostile intelligence service” by CIA Director Mike Pompeo last April. Stone insisted that the messages vindicated his account. “They prove conclusively that I had no advance knowledge of content or source of WikiLeaks publications,” he said. “I merely had confirmed Assange’s public claim that he had information on Hillary Clinton and he would publish it.” He also narrowed the scope of his earlier denials, saying that he’d only denied having communicated directly with Assange, not with Wikileaks. Wikileaks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


These messages have been reproduced by The Atlantic’s art team.

“I have never said or written that I had any direct communication with Julian Assange and have always clarified in numerous interviews and speeches that my communication with WikiLeaks was through the aforementioned journalist,” Stone told the committee in his prepared statement in September. The full hearing was held behind closed doors and the transcript has not been made public. At least one lawmaker had already obtained a screenshot of the exchange before Stone testified, according to two sources familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The correspondence raises questions about whether Stone—who served as Trump’s lobbyist in Washington in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and had been encouraging him to run for president for over a decade—has kept secret any interactions that may be of interest to congressional investigators examining Russia’s election interference.

Stone also exchanged private Twitter messages in August and September of 2016 with a user known as Guccifer 2.0. Guccifer claimed in a posting on their Wordpress site to have “penetrated Hillary Clinton’s and other Democrats’ mail servers,” but the self-described hacker was later characterized by U.S. officials as a front for Russian military intelligence. Stone only published that exchange after it was revealed by The Smoking Gun, a website that publishes mugshots and other public documents.

On the afternoon of October 13, 2016, Stone sent WikiLeaks a private Twitter message. “Since I was all over national TV, cable and print defending wikileaks and assange against the claim that you are Russian agents and debunking the false charges of sexual assault as trumped up bs you may want to rexamine the strategy of attacking me- cordially R.”

WikiLeaks—whose Twitter account is run “by a rotating staff,” according to Assange—replied an hour later: “We appreciate that. However, the false claims of association are being used by the democrats to undermine the impact of our publications. Don’t go there if you don’t want us to correct you.”

“Ha!” Stone responded on October 15. “The more you ‘correct’ me the more people think you’re lying. Your operation leaks like a sieve. You need to figure out who your friends are.” Assange’s internet connection was cut off days later by the Ecuadorian embassy—which granted him diplomatic asylum in London in 2012—following WikiLeaks’ release of emails that had been stolen by Russian hackers from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s inbox. The morning after Donald Trump won the election, however, WikiLeaks sent Stone another message. “Happy? We are now more free to communicate.”

It is unclear whether Stone and WikiLeaks kept in touch, using Twitter or another platform, after the election. WikiLeaks continued to insist through at least last March that neither the organization nor Assange had ever communicated with Stone directly. Stone later identified radio host Randy Credico as the intermediary, but Credico denied that in an interview with The Daily Beast earlier this month. “There was no backchannel to Roger Stone, and I think that his testimony was a lot of bravado,” Credico said. “Roger’s a showman.”

The substance of the messages does seem to corroborate, however, Stone and WikiLeaks’ denials prior to October 13 that they had coordinated in any significant way. WikiLeaks indicated that Stone’s claims of association—even if through a backchannel, as Stone alleged—were false. But the screenshots do not show whether Stone and WikiLeaks communicated prior to October 13 or after November 9, 2016.

Democrats have asked GOP members to subpoena Twitter for the private messages of Trump associates currently under investigation in the Russia probe, according to one of the sources familiar with the internal proceedings. But the majority has so far refused. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican who is leading the Intelligence Committee's investigation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As The Atlantic’s Julia Ioffe first disclosed last fall, WikiLeaks also exchanged private Twitter messages with Donald Trump Jr., who provided the correspondence to congressional investigators. WikiLeaks continued to message Trump Jr. through July 2017, “actively soliciting” his cooperation on ventures ranging from obtaining the president’s tax returns to appointing Assange Australia’s U.S. ambassador.

On July 22, 2016, just before the Democratic National Convention kicked off, WikiLeaks published thousands of emails that had been stolen from Democratic National Committee servers by hackers the U.S. intelligence community has since linked back to Russia. Stone told the Southwest Broward Republican Organization on August 8 that he had “communicated with Assange” and believed that “the next tranche of his documents”—which Assange had hinted at in an earlier interview with CNN— pertained to the Clinton Foundation. Stone soon walked that back, claiming instead that he communicated with Assange via an intermediary who he identified last November as Randy Credico. He declined to identify the intermediary in his interview with the House Intelligence Committee, but later changed his mind and claimed it had been Credico.

On October 4, 2016, Assange held a press conference to mark WikiLeaks’s 10th anniversary. The event had been hyped by supporters of then-candidate Trump, including Stone, as an “October surprise” that would completely derail Clinton’s presidential campaign just over a month before the election. On October 2, Stone told the far-right talk-radio host Alex Jones that he had been “assured that the mother lode” was coming. The next day, he tweeted that he had “total confidence that @wikileaks” and his “hero Julian Assange” would come through.

At his press conference, however, Assange gave no hints of what was to come, leaving his fans, and many of Trump’s, disappointed. Still, Stone was not deterred. “Libs thinking Assange will stand down are wishful thinking. Payload coming #Lockthemup,” he tweeted on October 5, 2016.

The payload actually came two days later: WikiLeaks began publishing the contents of Podesta’s inbox, which had been infiltrated by Russian hackers seven months earlier. Stone told The Daily Caller on October 12 that Assange had delayed the email dump on purpose: “I was led to believe that there would be a major release on a previous Wednesday,” he said. He denied, however, that he had been given “advance knowledge of the details” and maintained that he was only in touch with Assange “through an intermediary.”

On the morning of October 13, WikiLeaks issued a clarification: “WikiLeaks has never communicated with Roger Stone as we have previously, repeatedly stated.” It was later that day when Stone confronted WikiLeaks in a private message, and accused the organization of “attacking” him. WikiLeaks did not seem phased by the confrontation, and re-opened its line of communication with Stone on November 9. Fourteen months later, Stone visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Assange has been holed up for more than five years.

“I didn’t go and see” Assange, Stone told The Daily Beast last month. “I dropped off a card to be a smart ass.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ks/554432/

Seth Abramson

BREAKING: Per Atlantic Story, Roger Stone Could Now Be Charged With a Federal Felony at Any Time for Lying Under Oath to Congress

(In other words, Mueller has him if/when he wants him—it's only a question of the timing and manner of the indictment, now. And Stone knows a *lot*.)
‏
2/ Stone told Congress he never spoke directly to WikiLeaks—after first reviewing his Twitter correspondence. Now we know he in fact had such contact—so he lied, and knowingly, about a fact absolutely critical to the Mueller investigation. I'd expect him to eventually be charged.

3/ Remember—Stone and Trump have both lied about the nature, frequency and timing of their contacts. You should consider Stone—as you read the Atlantic story—one of Trump's top advisors (and one of his oldest confidants).

Remember, too, that Don Jr. had WikiLeaks contacts also.

[seemslikeadream]

Not Excellent News for Donald Trump
By Josh Marshall | February 27, 2018 9:36 pm

This from CNN could be nothing, just checking off boxes. But it sounds ominous for Donald Trump …

Investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller have recently been asking witnesses about Donald Trump’s business activities in Russia prior to the 2016 presidential campaign as he considered a run for president, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Questions to some witnesses during wide-ranging interviews included the timing of Trump’s decision to seek the presidency, potentially compromising information the Russians may have had about him, and why efforts to brand a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through, two sources said.

The article elaborates on these points – in questioning other witnesses, Mueller’s investigators are asking about when Donald Trump became serious about running for President, how this chronology overlapped with various business ventures, who paid for what on his 2013 visit to Russia and what access people had to the now-President to gain compromising information about the President.

Most of the article is not able to get past ‘the questions were asked’. But even in hints and clues you can see the storyline and chain of events beginning to draw tight.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/no ... nald-trump

Mueller team asks about Trump's Russian business dealings as he weighed a run for president
By Kara Scannell, Pamela Brown, Gloria Borger and Jim Sciutto, CNN

Updated 8:31 PM ET, Tue February 27, 2018


(CNN)Investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller have recently been asking witnesses about Donald Trump's business activities in Russia prior to the 2016 presidential campaign as he considered a run for president, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Questions to some witnesses during wide-ranging interviews included the timing of Trump's decision to seek the presidency, potentially compromising information the Russians may have had about him, and why efforts to brand a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through, two sources said.
The lines of inquiry indicate Mueller's team is reaching beyond the campaign to explore how the Russians might have sought to influence Trump at a time when he was discussing deals in Moscow and contemplating a presidential run.
Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. The President claims that any investigation of his family's finances would be a breach of the special counsel's mandate.
Two of the sources said they do not know from the questions asked whether Mueller has concrete evidence to indicate wrongdoing.
"You ask everything even if you don't think it's credible," one of the sources said, adding, "the allegations are out there, and it was checking the box."
The special counsel's office, an attorney for the President and the Trump Organization all declined to comment for this story.
Questions about Trump's entry into the campaign
Investigators asked one witness when Trump became serious about running for President, a person familiar with the matter said, adding that investigators seemed very interested in when Trump actually decided to run and how that coincided with his business ventures.
The source said the witness told Mueller's team his impression was that Trump was serious about running back in 2014. Trump tweeted earlier this month that he "didn't know" that he was going to run for president in 2014.
This witness was also asked whether Russians had been seen in the office at Trump Tower New York prior to 2015. The answer was no.
Questions have also touched on the possibility of compromising information that Russians may have or claim to have about Trump, according to two sources familiar with the matter. That subject matter echoes claims in a controversial dossier written by a former British spy who was paid by an opposition research firm underwritten by Trump's Democratic opponents.
Questions about Trump's Moscow trip
Several lines of questioning to witnesses have centered on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which was held in Moscow, and unsuccessful discussions to brand a Trump Tower Moscow, two sources said.
For the pageant, Trump partnered with Aras Agalarov, and his son, Emin Agalarov, billionaire real estate developers in Russia. In congressional testimony last year, Donald Trump Jr. said that "preliminary discussions" to build a tower in Moscow began between the Trump Organization and the Agalarovs after the Miss Universe pageant. Trump tweeted with excitement about the potential project, saying "Trump Tower-Moscow is next."
But the plans fell through. Rob Goldstone, a publicist for pop star Emin Agalarov, told Yahoo News last year that the Trump Tower deal was scrapped because "the economy tanked in Russia" from harsh sanctions imposed by Western countries.
One of the sources said, based on the questions, that Mueller's team was focused on the financing of the Miss Universe Pageant, such as who paid for what and what money was paid to whom.
The Trump Organization has never disclosed exactly how much it was paid to hold the beauty pageant in Russia. But Trump's lawyers said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Trump Organization made $12.2 million from foreign sources that year, and a "substantial portion" came from the Moscow event.
A second area of focus was what happened during the event. The source said questions also focused on meetings Trump had with Russian business people or government officials, leading the source to believe the investigators were probing the possibility of "kompromat," or compromising material, on Trump.
Along these lines, the source said, investigators were interested in logistics surrounding Trump's hotel room in Moscow: Who was there? Who would have access to it? Who was in charge of security? Who was moving around with him during the trip?
About two years after the pageant, Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen began negotiations with another Russian company for a Trump Tower in Moscow. Trump even signed a non-binding letter of intent in October 2015. But Cohen says he cut off negotiations in January 2016. One of the sources said Mueller's team has also asked about this project, in addition to the potential Agalarov deal.
Trump did not mention during the presidential campaign that his company explored these two business deals in Russia. Instead, he insisted that he had "nothing to do with Russia." Even when talking about his past dealings with Russians -- like the Miss Universe pageant -- Trump never referred to the prospective deal that fell through a few weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
Trump's past business dealings have been an area of interest to counterintelligence officials. CNN has previously reported that before the special counsel's appointment in May, the FBI had combed through the list of shell companies and buyers of Trump-branded real estate properties and scrutinized the roster of tenants at Trump Tower reaching back more than a half-dozen years.
Investigators have looked at the backgrounds of Russian business associates connected to Trump surrounding the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.
CNN reported last month that the Trump Organization has given some documents to Mueller, and that the bulk of the information requested was from the time during the campaign and transition, not Trump's earlier business dealings.
Last year, Trump said he would view any investigation of his or his family's personal finances as a "violation" by Mueller that crosses a red line. Trump's lawyers previously have said that Trump's business dealings from the time before he was a presidential candidate do not fall under the scope of what Mueller is authorized to investigate by the Justice Department.
Mueller was appointed last spring to investigate Russian meddling and "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation," according to the order signed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics ... index.html

Seth Abramson‏
(THREAD) The Trump investigation no one is discussing is the one that could prove—via direct evidence—that Trump stole the presidency. Inspector General Horowitz needs to talk to Joseph DiGenova, a Trump supporter who may well be the man whose actions threw the election to Trump.

1:09 AM - 28 Feb 2018

1. When Comey declined to indict Clinton over her private email server in July 2016, the two biggest critics of the decision—both Trump supporters, both vociferous—were Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani and current attorney for Trump-Russia figures Joe DiGenova.
5 reasons Comey should have recommended Clinton's indictment
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/c ... indictment

2. Giuliani is well known for having creepily predicted an "October surprise" for Clinton just 72 hours before Comey re-opened the Clinton investigation. And Giuliani's role went well beyond being a Nostradamus; he was likely involved in Comey feeling forced to re-open the case.

3/ But DiGenova's role in Comey's decision—which polling analyses by one of the nation's top pollsters, Nate Silver, suggest swung the election to Trump—hasn't been analyzed, though it was more public and more controversial than Giuliani's. Yet no one talks about DiGenova at all.

4/ On October 13, 2016, DiGenova, whose firm—him and his wife Victoria Toensing—now represent ex-Trump National Co-Chair Sam Clovis, made an astounding public offer: he'd represent any FBI agent who wanted to testify against Comey before the GOP Congress.
Former U.S. Attorney: James Comey Is ‘A Dirty Cop’
https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/for ... dirty-cop/

5/ The offer was bizarre for too many reasons to count. Was this attorney really try to gin up explosive "whistle-blower" testimony about Comey's decision not to indict Clinton under four weeks before a presidential election? Was he trying to influence the election? Yes, he was.

6/ But for all that, the offer was "within bounds" because any such FBI agent's testimony would be in closed session, so—unless the GOP leaked it—it would presumably not influence the election, though DiGenova's support for Trump and hatred of Clinton was public and white-hot.

7/ Then—in the next 4 days—something changed. Either DiGenova already knew agents wanted to attack Comey pre-election or they heard his October 13 call—on Laura Ingraham's website; remember, she was almost Trump's Communications Director—and contacted him.
EXCLUSIVE: FBI Agents Say Comey ‘Stood In The Way’ Of Clinton Email Investigation
http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/17/exclu ... stigation/

8/ In any case by October 17, 2016, agents weren't talking to Congress—which would be legal—they were violating the Hatch Act by leaking to the media on a closed (unindicted) FBI case, and in a way that clearly could affect a presidential election. They spoke to The Daily Caller.

9/ A quote from The Daily Caller article: "FBI agents say the Bureau is alarmed over Director James Comey deciding not to suggest that the Justice Department prosecute Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified information." How did the Daily Caller get this information?

10/ "According to an interview transcript given to The Daily Caller—provided by an intermediary who spoke to two federal agents with the bureau last Friday—agents are frustrated by Comey’s leadership." Odd—Friday's the day after DiGenova offered to rep FBI agents who hated Comey!

11/ Was DiGenova the intermediary? "According to attorney Joe DiGenova, more FBI agents will be talking about the problems at the FBI and specifically the handling of the Clinton case by Comey when Congress comes back in session and decides to force them to testify by subpoena."

12/ How did DiGenova know "more FBI agents will be talking" unless he'd been in contact with active agents about a closed case in the 4 days after he made a public offer to represent any agents who wanted to go to Congress about Comey? How did he know the GOP would subpoena them?

13/ How about this—he used to *work* for the GOP. "DiGenova has experience on Capitol Hill. He was chief counsel and staff director of the Senate Rules Committee and counsel to the Senate Judiciary, Governmental Affairs and Select Intelligence committees." https://www.dcbar.org/bar-resources/pub ... he-law.cfm …

14/ OK, but DiGenova's still playing by the rules—yes, he seems to know too much about a GOP plot to get agents to testify against Comey pre-election by subpoena and then (likely) leak the testimony, but he's not suborning Hatch Act violations. (Unless he was the "intermediary"?)

15/ But wait! 10 days later—on October 28, 2016—DiGenova gives a WMAL interview. He says: "The agents came to Comey yesterday, they told him about the new evidence, he said 'Oh shit'...and he knew the agents who were running the Weiner case would leak it."
Joe DiGenova on the FBI Reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton
http://www.wmal.com/2016/10/28/joe-dige ... y-clinton/

16/ Here's what interesting. First, DiGenova claims it was "new evidence" (which it wasn't, but that was a critical claim in the subsequent True Pundit Hoax). Second, how did DiGenova know what FBI agents did privately the day before? Third, how did he know a leak was threatened?

17/ The news that Comey was afraid of a leak was reported as an *exclusive* by The New York Times on October 29, 2016—the day *after* DiGenova already had that intel. So it seems DiGenova *was* in contact with the agents who threatened Comey with a leak.
Justice Dept. Strongly Discouraged Comey on Move in Clinton Email Case
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/us/p ... stice.html

18/ But there's more. On October 24, pro-Trump site True Pundit published a story alleging Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe was corrupt—and claimed it had FBI sources and documents for the story. Sure, you say, easy for them to claim that—likely untrue.
FBI Director Lobbied Against Criminal Charges For Hillary After Clinton Insider Paid His Wife $700,000
https://truepundit.com/fbi-director-lob ... wife-700k/

19/ Well, it wasn't untrue—because Judicial Watch used a FOIA to get McCabe's emails, and the day after the True Pundit story McCabe emailed Comey the story with the words, "FYI. Heavyweight source." Comey agreed the True Pundit source was an active agent.
Growing Evidence Of A Politically Tainted Clinton Investigation
http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/14/fbi-h ... mes-comey/
20/ And who should bring up the True Pundit story on Fox News within 24 hours of it coming out on a relatively obscure website? Rudy Giuliani. And just like that, a story improbably claiming FBI sources on a known fake-news website made it to Fox News—through a top Trump advisor.

21/ So as Trump supporter/ex-GOP lawyer DiGenova is using his new clients to threaten Comey with leaked Congressional testimony—and possibly leaks to media—Trump advisor Giuliani is actively threatening the man who's working with Comey to decide what to do on the Clinton case.

22/ But it gets better: within 48 hours of—DiGenova's?—clients meeting Comey, Rolling Stone reports an anonymous post goes up on a site for *active NYPD cops*. And what does the post say? What will become the "True Pundit Hoax." Read on for an explanation.
Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/n ... al-w511904

23/ The NYPD post says "the feds were forced to reopen the hillary email case [because] apparently the NYPD sex crimes unit was involved in the weiner case. On his laptop they saw emails. they notified the FBI. Feds were afraid that NYPD would go public so they had to reopen...

24/ ...or be accused of a coverup." So Giuliani brags on TV about talking to active-duty FBI agents—just as DiGenova was—and is tight with scores of folks at NYPD from when he was mayor, and here's an NYPD cop saying NYPD was planning to leak info to the press to pressure Comey?

25/ On October 25, Giuliani says Trump's October surprise would come "in a few days." On October 29, his pals at NYPD put into the jetstream that NYPD was going to leak on Comey, which (on the very same day) the NYT reports as the reason Comey had to send his letter to Congress.

26/ Meanwhile, either agents represented by DiGenova—or with whom DiGenova is in contact—or co-conspirators of theirs, are leaking to The Daily Caller (October 17) days after DiGenova offers to help them, and True Pundit (October 24) a day before Giuliani spreads to story to FNC.

27/ Giuliani and DiGenova *appear*, therefore, to have successfully threatened McCabe and threatened Comey just before Comey sends his letter to Congress because (per the NYT) he was "sure" news of the Weiner emails would leak (presumably via FBI agents or Giuliani pals at NYPD).

28/ By November 2, an amalgam of the NYPD post and an October 29—i.e., the same day—Facebook post by "Carmen Katz" (likely Cynthia Campbell of Joplin, Missouri, per Rolling Stone) becomes the "True Pundit Hoax." But the Hoax had already shown up elsewhere.
BREAKING BOMBSHELL: NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes with Children, Child Exploitation, Pay to Play, Perjury

https://truepundit.com/breaking-bombshe ... y-perjury/

29/ It'd showed up on a site run by Russia-connected Macedonian hackers, Conservative Daily Post (https://conservativedailypost.com/break ... x-network/ …) and on YourNewsWire, a pro-Trump fake news site. And then, on November 4, the unthinkable happened: it made it to Breitbart via a Trump advisor, Erik Prince.

30/ Breitbart, controlled (by his admission) by Trump Campaign CEO Bannon, brings on Trump advisor Prince to spread the hoax claim that the "new" Weiner emails confirm Hillary consorts with pedophiles—essentially the "Pizzagate" scam Roger Stone had pushed.
Erik Prince: NYPD Ready to Make Arrests in Anthony Weiner Case
http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/11/ ... iner-case/

31/ Who retweets the hoax? Trump advisor Mike Flynn. Trump's son Don—who later deletes it to cover his tracks. And incredibly, Trump himself will later retweet one of the accounts that spreads the hoax. So this looks to be a Trump operation start to finish.
Trump's Favorite Twitter Pollster Is a Renamed Pizzagate Conspiracy Peddler
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-fa ... cy-peddler

32/ And all the sites that spread this apparently Giuliani/DiGenova-linked hoax—remember, True Pundit claims the same FBI sources for the Hoax as the True Pundit story Giuliani pushed days earlier—are top sites for Russian bots to amplify (one is *run* by Russia-linked hackers).

33/ And remember, too, the recent bizarre news that it was *Eric* Trump who was effectively running Trump's campaign toward the end. Well, his wife, Lara, was, with Rudy Giuliani, one of the two Trump advisors creepily pumping an "October surprise" on FNC.

34/ So we know what won Trump the election—the Comey Letter. And it seems clear, now, that the GOP and the Trump campaign had its hands all over the threats (actually blackmail) involving true *and* false FBI/NYPD leaks that led Comey and McCabe to feel the letter had to be sent.

35/ And you know which former federal prosecutor is the chief public proponent—even today—of the theory that Obama tapped Trump Tower? You guessed it: Joe DiGenova. Sort of makes you think Horowitz should ask DiGenova about his contacts with Trump, right?

CONCLUSION/ The evidence confirming Trump's people were all over forcing Comey to re-open the Clinton case—a decision that gave the election to Trump, and provably so—is *stronger* than the Trump-Russia coordination evidence, which is itself quite strong.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status ... 9018329088

Hope Hicks Acknowledges She Sometimes Tells White Lies for Trump

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/p ... imony.html

Mueller asking what Trump knew about hacked emails

by Katy Tur and Carol E. LeeFeb 28 2018, 2:04 pm ET

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is asking witnesses pointed questions about whether Donald Trump was aware that Democratic emails had been stolen before that was publicly known, and whether he was involved in their strategic release, according to multiple people familiar with the probe.

Mueller's investigators have asked witnesses whether Trump was aware of plans for WikiLeaks to publish the emails. They have also asked about the relationship between GOP operative Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and why Trump took policy positions favorable to Russia.

The line of questioning suggests the special counsel, who is tasked with examining whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, is looking into possible coordination between WikiLeaks and Trump associates in disseminating the emails, which U.S. intelligence officials say were stolen by Russia.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion and has described the special counsel's investigation as "illegal" and a "witch hunt."

In one line of questioning, investigators have focused on Trump's public comments in July 2016 asking Russia to find emails that were deleted by his then-opponent Hillary Clinton from a private server she maintained while secretary of state. The comments came at a news conference on July 27, 2016, just days after WikiLeaks began publishing the Democratic National Committee emails. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said.

Witnesses have been asked whether Trump himself knew then that Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, whose emails were released several months later, had already been targeted. They were also asked if Trump was advised to make the statement about Clinton's emails from someone outside his campaign, and if the witnesses had reason to believe Trump tried to coordinate the release of the DNC emails to do the most damage to Clinton, the people familiar with the matter said.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer would later say that then-candidate Trump had been "joking" when he called on Russia to hack his opponent's emails.


Fmr. U.S Attorney: Mueller is not done yet
What did Stone know?

Investigators are also asking questions about Trump's longtime relationship with Republican operative Roger Stone, according to witnesses. Investigators have asked about Stone's contacts with WikiLeaks during the campaign and if he's ever met with Assange.

"They wanted to see if there was a scheme. Was Stone working on the side for Trump?" after he officially left the campaign, one person interviewed by the special counsel's office said, adding that it seemed investigators wanted to know, "Was this a big plot?"

Russia stole emails from the DNC and Podesta, according to U.S. intelligence officials, and released batches of them through WikiLeaks starting in July 2016 and up until the election.

As part of his plea agreement with the special counsel, former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos revealed that in a conversation in late April 2016, he was told by a professor with ties to Russian officials that they had "dirt' on Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." A 10-page memo from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released Saturday noted that the Justice Department's October 2016 application for a FISA warrant on another Trump foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, included the fact that Russian agents had previewed their hack and dissemination of stolen emails to Papadopoulos.

Investigators were interested in statements Stone made in the final month of the 2016 campaign that strongly suggested he was aware of information the group had before it became public and when it might be released. In one instance, he wrote on Twitter that "it would soon be Podesta's time in the barrel." Weeks later Podesta's stolen emails were released by WikiLeaks.

As WikiLeaks was strategically publishing stolen emails in the closing months of the campaign, Trump also publicly said he loved the group. In 2017, President Trump's CIA director, Mike Pompeo, would label the group a hostile non-state actor.

Investigators also have shown interest in any connections Stone has to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. Stone has said he communicated with Assange and WikiLeaks through an intermediary he described as a journalist.

The Atlantic reported this week that Stone exchanged direct messages on Twitter with WikiLeaks.

Mueller's team has asked witnesses if Stone ever met with Assange. Stone has denied ever communicating directly with Assange.

Stone served briefly on the Trump campaign in 2015, leaving in August of that year. At the time he said he quit, while the campaign said he was fired.

Investigators have asked witnesses about Stone's time on the campaign and what his relationship was like with Trump after he left.

"How often did they talk? Who really fired him? Was he really fired?" a witness said, describing the line of questioning.

In a statement, Stone said he had "no advance knowledge of the content or source of information published by WikiLeaks."

"I have not been interviewed by the Special Counsel," wrote Stone. "I never discussed WikiLeaks, Assange or the Hillary disclosures with candidate Trump, before during or after the election. I have no idea what he knew about them, from who or when. I have never met Assange."

Stone appeared before the House Intelligence Committee for four hours last September. In his prepared opening statement, which he also delivered publicly on the InfoWars YouTube channel, Stone denied that he ever engaged "in any illegal activities on behalf of my clients, or the causes which I support." He denied having direct contact with Assange and called any exchanges with Guccifer 2.0, which took credit for hacking the DNC, "innocuous." And he said his tweet predicting that Podesta would spend time in the "barrel" was in the context of the coverage of the resignation of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, whom he called his "boyhood friend and colleague," over allegations about business activities in Ukraine.

Trump's policy positions

At that same July 2016 news conference where he referenced Clinton's missing emails, candidate Trump said he was open to lifting sanctions on Russia and possibly recognizing its annexation of Crimea in Ukraine. The U.S. and its European allies had sanctioned Russia because of its intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, which the Obama administration refused to recognize.

Investigators have asked witnesses why Trump took policy positions that were friendly toward Russia and spoke positively about Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the probe.

Investigators have also inquired whether Trump met with Putin before becoming president, including if a meeting took place during Trump's 2013 visit to Moscow for his Miss Universe pageant. Trump has given conflicting responses on when he first met Putin.

At least one witness was asked about Trump's business interests in Moscow and surmised afterward that the Special Counsel investigation may be focused on business dealings that took place during the campaign.

Witnesses also have been asked about Stone's connections to Manafort.

At least one witness has been asked about Trump aide Dan Scavino, specifically about any involvement he may have had in the campaign's data operation. Scavino currently runs the White House's social media operations and is one of his closest aides.

NBC News reached out to Trump's legal team and the White House.

John Dowd, the president’s outside attorney, told NBC News, "We do not discuss our knowledge of or communications with the Special Counsel."

Peter Carr, spokesman for Special Counsel Mueller, declined to comment.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald ... ssion=true

[seemslikeadream]

Mueller's newest star witness?


Hope "White Lies" Hicks is resigning



to pursue "other opportunities"


It will never get out
- Hope Hicks


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H4vy5xs7Og

who's gonna press trump's pants now?

[seemslikeadream]

I have a secret diary




Mike Flynn asked Hope Hicks conceal the truth on questions concerning his contact with the Russian ambassador, according to a House member. Did any other White House officials ask her to conceal the truth or lie?

Hope Hicks refused to tell House panel whether she had lied for senior Trump officials, lawmakers say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpos ... 7441bdc74d

In this hour's installment of The Apprentice President, the media frenzy over a glamorous ousted aide gave Bob Mueller his latest subpoena tip.

“Hicks has been secretly keeping...a 'diary of her White House work, and her interactions w/Trump.'” If true, belongs to USG not her, must be preserved in WH under Pres Recds Act, raises issues about her handling of classified & WILL be subpoenaed.

EXCLUSIVE: Hope Hicks' $10 million payday! The departing coms director is flooded with offers as publishers scramble for a book deal to spill the secrets of Trump's inner sanctum and her affair with wife abuser Rob Porter

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z58YeqKdos

“She’s in Immense Personal Jeopardy”: Even for Hope Hicks, the West Wing Got Too Hot

“Emotionally overwhelmed” by the headlines over Rob Porter, manipulated by Kelly, and interviewed by Mueller and Congress, the president’s surrogate daughter is leaving the Trump bunker at one of his toughest moments.

Gabriel Sherman
March 1, 2018 2:09 pm

On the list of ways Donald Trump’s presidency has no historical precedent, staff turnover ranks at the top. The churn rate in the Trump White House is more than double that of previous administrations, according to one analysis. (It’s triple that of the Obama White House.) Since the inauguration, nearly two dozen senior officials have quit or been pushed out. But even for a White House roiled by firings and resignations, the announcement that Hope Hicks was quitting was of a different magnitude, reaching into Trump’s own bunker in a way no other event has to this point.

The 29-year-old Hicks serves as communications director, but her role and power in the West Wing and in the president’s daily life is vastly more significant than any formal title. She’s been a constant presence at Trump’s side from the inception of his presidential run in 2015, serving as a gatekeeper and emotional support system for the temperamental chief executive. She defends Trump fiercely, and Trump returns the loyalty. Staffers remark that Trump treats Hicks—“Hope-y” as he calls her—like a surrogate daughter. Her centrality was such that it was hard to imagine Trump functioning without her.

But in recent weeks, Hicks became disillusioned with her job, people who’ve spoken with her told me. Her closeness to Trump meant she was also nearest to the hottest flames of the fires that have burned in the West Wing, the most intense being the Russia probe. Hicks has racked up substantial legal fees, one source told me. “She’s in immense personal jeopardy,” one Republican close to the White House said yesterday. “This is a sign the Mueller investigation is a lot more serious than any one of us thought.” (Hicks and the White House declined to comment.)

The tipping point for Hicks was more personal, sources said. She was “emotionally overwhelmed” by seeing herself in the headlines during her boyfriend Rob Porter’s domestic abuse scandal, one Hicks friend told me. Hicks expressed disbelief at the allegations that Porter beat his ex-wives. She’s recently told people she’s no longer dating Porter.

Another factor in her exit was her deteriorating relationship with Chief of Staff John Kelly. “He’s a wartime general and he’s turned the West Wing into a war zone,” the friend recalled Hicks complaining. Kelly blamed Hicks for orchestrating the White House’s defense of Porter, given her personal conflict in the story. According to two sources, in recent days Kelly informed Hicks he wanted Mercedes Schlapp, a senior strategic-communications adviser, to play a bigger role in the press office. “Well, if that’s what Kelly wants, it’s his call,” Hicks said, according to a person who spoke with her. Schlapp, married to Matt Schlapp, head of the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC, is now a leading candidate for Hicks’s job.

Hicks’s decision to leave is the latest sign of how adept Kelly has been at reversing his own fortunes. Just weeks ago, the chief was on the ropes, his reputation for straight shooting in dire danger. It was revealed he’d promoted Porter even after he knew about the domestic abuse; and it was Kelly who helped blow up immigration-reform talks by calling DACA recipients “lazy.” “You know how Rahm Emanuel said, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste?’ That’s what Kelly did,” a Republican close to the White House said. But at seemingly his lowest moment, Kelly pulled off a masterstroke by promulgating new security-clearance rules that neutralized his biggest West Wing rivals: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. “The Jivanka team is crumbling,” a person close to the White House said. A day before Hicks resigned, Kushner’s spokesman Josh Raffel announced he, too, was quitting. Between the relentless chaos of the West Wing and the looming Mueller investigation, even the most committed staffers are re-evaluating their options.

As Kelly rapidly consolidates power, Trump thus far shows no signs of reining him in. In recent days, Corey Lewandowski has lobbied the president to fire Kelly, but not yet, a source said. Lewandowski’s advice is that Trump shouldn’t replace him right away, instead holding a series of interviews to find a person he clicks with. Trump rejected the proposal. “He’s too worried about the perception of all the turnover,” the source said.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03 ... al_twitter

The Russian oligarchs and the Koch Brothers
Frank V. D'Ambra
Updated: 5:24 am EST Fri Mar 2, 2018
Opinion

Since Donald Trump decided to run for POTUS in 2015, our way of life, our election process, our government, some of our media outlets, and our democracy have been under siege by Russian media bots and hackers, as well as several of the GOP congressional leaders, who in reality serve as traitors for hire by Russian oligarchs and the Koch Brothers.

Kremlin oligarch Leonard Blavatnik, who has close financial ties with some of Putin’s other favorite oligarchs, poured $7.35 million into GOP campaigns between 2015 and 2016, with 2.5 million going to Mitch McConnell alone (link). The rest went to Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich, John McCain and Donald Trump. The Koch Brothers added another $900 million to GOP campaigns in 2016.

Of course, this was only the money that we know of, and not any money that was transferred in the early morning hours, in a hotel room and in a black suitcase, that was never recorded. With all the backdoor Russian meetings that were made during the campaign, between Trump surrogates and close supporters who claimed not to recall any meetings with Russians, we really don’t know exactly how much money was taken under the table and how many players, GOP members, had their hands in the till. We also just learned that the Russians were funneling in extra money into the NRA, to back the GOP in the 2016 election.

Together, The Russian oligarchs and Koch Brothers, with the help of Rupert Murdoch’s FOX NEWS, organized and orchestrated a master con, with con man Trump selling the voters a bill of goods they would never get. Throw in Russian bots utilizing social media, in an all out assault on Hillary Clinton, while also possibly hacking voting machines to skew the numbers over to Trump, and we now have a GOP Congress and White House, all bought and paid for, ready to serve the one percent. Let’s not forget that Mitch McConnell refused to inform the public about the Russian meddling into the election before election day, and the GOP Congress has been giving Trump free rein since the election.

This GOP government has absolutely no interest in advancing America’s interests. If it did, we would have free health care, a fifteen dollar per hour minimum wage, and free colleges. Vets wouldn’t be starving and homeless. There would have been no cuts to programs aimed at helping the disabled and elderly. Instead the GOP Congress and White House are pushing their agenda. It’s not enough that Mitch McConnell has a $30 million dollar net worth and Paul Ryan has $10 million. The majority of the GOP Congress are multimillionaires looking to take even more money from our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Ryan just received another half a million for his fundraising committee from the Koch family after pushing through the Tax Scam Bill to benefit them and the GOP. Where does the greed end?

It’s not by accident that all these players I mention in this article are connected. Trump is friends with both Murdoch and The Koch Brothers. The Koch Brothers and Murdoch have had business ties with Russia and Putin. Fred Koch, the father of the Koch Brothers started the Koch empire in Russia by building oil refineries for Joseph Stalin. Today the Koch Brother and Rex Tillerson would have a stake in Putin’s $500 billion Arctic oil deal with ExxonMobil if Trump is able to remove all sanctions on Russia. America is under siege and we need to take our government back starting in November 2018. If the Koch Brothers, Putin and Russian oligarchs win, WE LOSE. We can’t afford to lose. Frank V. D’Ambra is the author of the books Annihilation and The Pledge
http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/koc ... rchs/8479/

Has Kremlin Barbie disclosed this on her SF86, specifically page 76?
7 years would include Baku deal

Exclusive: FBI counterintel investigating Ivanka Trump business deal


(CNN)US counterintelligence officials are scrutinizing one of Ivanka Trump's international business deals, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The FBI has been looking into the negotiations and financing surrounding Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver, according to a US official and a former US official. The scrutiny could be a hurdle for the first daughter as she tries to obtain a full security clearance in her role as adviser to President Donald Trump.

It's standard procedure to probe foreign contacts and international business deals as part of a background check investigation. But the complexity of the Trump Organization's business deals, which often rely on international financing and buyers, presents a challenge.

The FBI has been looking closely at the international business entanglements of both Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, to determine whether any of those deals could leave them vulnerable to pressure from foreign agents, including China, according to a US official.

The development -- a 616-foot beacon dotting the Vancouver skyline and featuring a trademarked Ivanka Trump spa -- opened in February 2017, just after Trump took office.

The Trump Organization does not own the building. Instead, like other Trump projects, it receives licensing and marketing fees from the developer, Joo Kim Tiah. A scion of one of Malaysia's wealthiest families, Tiah runs his family's Canada-based development company Holborn Group. President Trump's June financial disclosure form said the Trump Organization made more than $5 million in royalties and $21,500 in management fees from the Vancouver property.

The $360 million project, which features 147 guest rooms and 217 luxury residences, quickly became a magnet for foreign buyers.

In the case of Vancouver, it's not clear why investigators are examining this particular deal. The timing of the deal -- as one of the few Trump-branded properties to open since Trump took office -- could be of interest. The flow of foreign money, either from the developer or international condo buyers, could also be sparking scrutiny.

Since Kushner took on his role as senior adviser to President Trump, officials in countries including China have discussed ways to use Kushner's web of business deals to manipulate him, according to The Washington Post.
"CNN is wrong that any hurdle, obstacle, concern, red flag or problem has been raised with respect to Ms. Trump or her clearance application," said Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Ivanka Trump's ethics counsel. "Nothing in the new White House policy has changed Ms. Trump's ability to do the same work she has been doing since she joined the Administration."

Alan Garten, executive vice president and chief legal officer for the Trump Organization, said, "the company's role was and is limited to licensing its brand and managing the hotel. Accordingly, the company would have had no involvement in the financing of the project or the sale of units."

White House spokesman Raj Shah declined to comment on Ivanka Trump's security clearance. The FBI declined to comment. The Holborn Group did not respond to requests for comment.

Ivanka Trump, the Vancouver dealmaker


For the Trumps, deal-making is a family affair. The developer in Vancouver, Tiah, bonded with Donald Trump Jr. But Ivanka Trump played a key role in getting the deal off the ground in 2013, two years before Trump officially launched his presidential bid.

Tiah flew to New York for a meeting at Trump Tower. In the board room featured on The Apprentice, they hammered out the contours of the deal.

Regulator seeks information about Kushner's ties to 3 banks
"One of the senior vice-presidents pulled me aside and said: 'Joo Kim, it's really important in your presentation that you connect with Ivanka. In other words: no one else is in the room, you have to understand that," Tiah recalled at the October 2015 launch of a "Trump Luxe" VIP service for condo residents. "In that meeting, it was clearly just me and Ivanka talking about the project," he recalled.
After an agreement was reached, Ivanka Trump recalled at the same event that she worked closely with Tiah: "We were working on a lot on the design elements and really forming the vision."

"Ivanka and myself approved everything, everything in this project," Tiah added.

Holborn is backed financially by Tony Tiah Thee Kian, chairman of TA Enterprise, which controls several other businesses. The elder Tiah has a checkered business history, including securities laws violations and false statements to the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange, according to the Malaysia's Securities Commission. Joo Kim is the face of Holborn.

As with other Trump properties, the Vancouver tower easily attracted foreign buyers. The Vancouver Sun reported last year that one of the buyers in the project has links to the Chinese government.

What does this mean for Mueller?


While it is not known whether Ivanka Trump's business deals are of interest to the special counsel's investigation, Mueller has been examining her husband's interactions with foreign investors.

Kushner has been unable to obtain a full security clearance amid Mueller's investigation into his contacts with Russians and financial dealings with foreigners. His interim security clearance was downgraded this week from top secret to secret.

Because Ivanka Trump and Kushner are married, concerns that arise during one partner's security clearance investigation could stall or block both of them from receiving a full clearance, according to a US official.
Any information that arises during the FBI's security clearance checks that could be relevant to the special counsel's investigation would be automatically shared, according to a US official.

So far, the first daughter -- one of the President's closest confidants -- has largely managed to escape the glare of the Russia investigation. She has not been called to testify on Capitol Hill. She told NBC she has not met with Mueller for an interview.

"Consistently we have said there was no collusion. There was no collusion," Ivanka Trump said in an interview this week with NBC News. "And we believe that Mueller will do his work and reach that same conclusion."

But her low profile, particularly when it comes to Mueller's investigation, is baffling to some legal experts.

"Why is he not interviewing Ivanka? The answer is, beats me," said Michael Zeldin, a CNN legal analyst and former prosecutor who previously worked for Mueller at the Justice Department.

"Either he's just biding his time," Zeldin said, "or he has obtained this evidence elsewhere and he doesn't need her, or he appreciates the possibility of a major eruption were he to do that."

Ivanka Trump accompanied the President as two key events unfolded that Mueller is looking into as part of an obstruction of justice investigation: the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey and the misleading statement about the Trump team's meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in June 2016.

While it's unclear what role she played in either of those instances, she may have been privy the President's thinking at the time.

Trump's first-born daughter has long served as a trusted adviser, and she and her father often speak several times a day. She worked closely with her father and siblings in the family real estate business and counseled Trump throughout the presidential campaign and transition. She resigned from the Trump Organization in January 2017 and officially joined the White House staff in March.

For the most part, congressional investigators have also shown little interest in speaking with Ivanka, although some have pressed for her testimony.

Last month, Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he'd like to speak with Ivanka Trump. But GOP members of the committee haven't backed his request to interview her.

"I think it would be valuable for her to testify and come before the committee," Schiff said.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/01/politics ... index.html

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Have you check out Hopsicker's latest video?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScouEH9ltWs

Looks like the beginning of a series.

[seemslikeadream]

thanks ....Pavel Vrublevsky

Re: Tea Pot Dome, Watergate, Trump: Crime, Cover-up and Curi
... sources say, they are being prosecuted for leaking information to the United States on the Russian founder of the Chronopay payment system, Pavel Vrublevsky, in a case that goes back to 2011. https://themoscowtimes.com/news/the-bel ... king-59810 ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Tea Pot Dome, Watergate, Trump: Crime, Cover-up and Curious

Re: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Trea
... sources say, they are being prosecuted for leaking information to the United States on the Russian founder of the Chronopay payment system, Pavel Vrublevsky, in a case that goes back to 2011. https://themoscowtimes.com/news/the-bel ... king-59810 ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Treason

Re: The Festering Darkness That is Steve Bannon
... to alt-right stock fraud Posted on March 6, 2017 by Daniel Hopsicker http://www.madcowprod.com/wp-content/up ... 03/pv1.jpg Pavel ‘Red Eye’ Vrublevsky, a Russian businessman under investigation in the FBI’s probe of Russian hacking in the 2016 Presidential election, shared a business address ...
by stillrobertpaulsen
Thu Mar 30, 2017 3:49 pm

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: The Festering Darkness That is Steve Bannon

Re: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Trea
... claimed for years that Mikhailov was trading information on cybercriminals with the West. Mikhailov had reportedly testified in the case of Pavel Vrublevsky, the former head of the payment services company Chronopay, who was imprisoned in 2013 for ordering a denial of service attack on the website ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Treason

Re: *president trump is seriously dangerous*
... the perpetrators of the cyberattacks. According to Novaya Gazeta, Fomenko rented computer-server space to another Russian entrepreneur named Pavel Vrublevsky, who ran an electronic payment company called Chronopay and in 2013 was convicted of cyberattacks on Russian companies. Mikhailov reportedly ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: *president trump is seriously dangerous*

Re: 500M Yahoo accounts hacked US just blamed 2 Russian Spie
... because it is not a clear accusation." According to Russian media, the arrests relate to old accusations made by a Russian businessman, Pavel Vrublevsky. Pavel Vrublevsk, founder of an online payments company, accused the four men of leaking sensitive information to the United States in 2010. ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: 500M Yahoo accounts hacked US just blamed 2 Russian Spies

Re: Policing by Consent
... Russian in hacking probe linked to alt-right stock fraud Posted on March 6, 2017 by Daniel Hopsicker Pavel ‘Red Eye’ Vrublevsky, a Russian businessman under investigation in the FBI’s probe of Russian hacking in the 2016 Presidential election, shared a business address ...
by fruhmenschen

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Policing by Consent

Re: The Little Führer
Russian in hacking probe linked to alt-right stock fraud Posted on March 6, 2017 by Daniel Hopsicker Pavel ‘Red Eye’ Vrublevsky, a Russian businessman under investigation in the FBI’s probe of Russian hacking in the 2016 Presidential election, shared a business address in John Gotti’s ...
by American Dream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: The Little Führer

Re: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Trea
... and other US companies, which were then shared with the country's government agencies. The claims were made in 2010 by Russian businessman Pavel Vrublevsky, the founder of online payments firm ChronoPay. According to the businessman and unnamed sources speaking to the publication, the arrests ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Treason

Re: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Trea
... been arrested. https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/20 ... ource=push Moscow Spy Scandal Snowballs: What We Know Vrublevsky later told Krebs in 2011 that he believed Mikhailov was the one who stole the e-mails and leaked them. Krebs said Vrublevsky was also convinced ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Treason

Re: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Trea
... (Шалтай-Болтай). According to information obtained by KrebsOnSecurity, the arrests may very well be tied to a long-running grudge held by Pavel Vrublevsky, a Russian businessman who for years paid most of the world’s top spammers and virus writers to pump malware and hundreds of billions of ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Treason

Re: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Trea
... in 2012, when he conducted a journalistic investigation about the criminal case against the founder and CEO of processing company Chronopay Pavel Vrublevsky. The businessman then accused Mikhailov in the fabrication of the criminal case. Later, in the process, in the Tushino district court, Sergey ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Russia Biggest Cybersecurity Firm Head Arrested For Treason

Re: *president trump is seriously dangerous*
... on the website of a Russian cyber entrepreneur who reportedly does business with the company. Mikhailov has links to that entrepreneur, Pavel Vrublevsky, and testified that he knew him during a 2012 trial against him for cyberattacking a business rival, Novaya Gazeta reported. News of Mikhailov’s ...
by seemslikeadream

Forum: General Discussion
Topic: *president trump is seriously dangerous*

Re: *president trump is seriously dangerous*
... the perpetrators of the cyberattacks. According to Novaya Gazeta, Fomenko rented computer-server space to another Russian entrepreneur named Pavel Vrublevsky, who ran an electronic payment company called Chronopay and in 2013 was convicted of cyberattacks on Russian companies. Mikhailov reportedly ...

search.php?keywords=VRUBLEVSKY&fid%5B0%5D=8

[0_0]

[seemslikeadream]

^^^^^^^^

Published on Dec 17, 2017

you could at least try and keep up with current events 0_0

even Hopsicker knows what's going on

since that all this below has happened and much more to come

[0_0]

i think the video above makes some great points that are valid for longer than a minute. you know what boggles my mind, all these talking heads on tv are paid big money to keep regurgitating propaganda to smear anyone that doesn't go along with the corporate agenda as russia-bots and so as to not have to discuss actual policies, but afaik noone on this board is getting paid. anyway, just wanted to post one little video that is fairly recent and makes some great points imo as a very small counterweight to the other narratives being spun here. hope that's ok

[seemslikeadream]

sure no problem but like I said 100+ charges and felony convictions since the video make the title a little dated

6 pages added to this thread since that video was posted

The full list of known indictments and plea deals in Mueller’s probe
1) George Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, pleaded guilty in October to making false statements to the FBI.

2) Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty in December to making false statements to the FBI.

3) Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, was indicted in October in Washington, DC on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, false statements, and failure to disclose foreign assets — all related to his work for Ukrainian politicians before he joined the Trump campaign. He’s pleaded not guilty on all counts. Then, in February, Mueller filed a new case against him in Virginia, with tax, financial, and bank fraud charges.

4) Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and Manafort’s longtime junior business partner, was indicted on similar charges to Manafort. But he has now agreed to a plea deal with Mueller’s team, pleading guilty to just one false statements charge and one conspiracy charge.

5-20) 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies were indicted on conspiracy charges, with some also being accused of identity theft. The charges related to a Russian propaganda effort designed to interfere with the 2016 campaign. The companies involved are the Internet Research Agency, often described as a “Russian troll farm,” and two other companies that helped finance it. The Russian nationals indicted include 12 of the agency’s employees and its alleged financier, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

21) Richard Pinedo: This California man pleaded guilty to an id
entity theft charge in connection with the Russian indictments, and has agreed to cooperate with Mueller.

22) Alex van der Zwaan: This London lawyer pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Rick Gates and another unnamed person based in Ukraine.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... grand-jury

[0_0]

color me seriously underwhelmed by that list.. if all it took was 13 russian facebook posters to swing the election you have to wonder where the billion dollar ad campaigns of the different candidates went wrong. not to mention the fact that some of those russian trollfarms actually posted pro-hillary stuff cos it was basically just a clickbait scheme to generate some revenues, and also not to mention the fact that this is now being used to smear a progressive candidate like Jill Stein because she wasn't aware of a couple of facebook postings amidst the million other postings. not surprised there is some financial white collar crime in Trumps circles either, at most i'd be surprised if they get punished for it. anyho we're more than a year further down the line and does any of this prove russia hacked the elections? well no, it doesn't. is it being used to distract from own failings, from actual policies, to smear progressives, to boost a cold war? yes, it is.

[seemslikeadream]

why are you ignoring all the other AMERICANS that have been charged and plead guilty?

CONSPIRACY TO DEFAUD THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES

and Manafort is facing life in prison

[0_0]

like i said, i'm not at all surprised there is some financial white collar crime in Trumps circles, at most i'd be surprised if they got punished for it. but that goes for most politicians. I mean how do you think they got so rich from public service?

[seemslikeadream]

Conspiracy against the U.S. is not a white collar crime

some have plead guilty so they already being punished ....and they are co operating

[0_0]

Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, was indicted in October in Washington, DC on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, false statements, and failure to disclose foreign assets — all related to his work for Ukrainian politicians before he joined the Trump campaign. He’s pleaded not guilty on all counts. Then, in February, Mueller filed a new case against him in Virginia, with tax, financial, and bank fraud charges.

sounds like typical white collar crime/politician stuff to me, which is bad enough, but it's a (very) far cry from a hostile takeover of the usa by putin