Trump vindicated - Mueller admits no Americans involved in Russia witch hunt

[Valerie]

other allegations of Russian interference — involving the hacks and leaks of leading Democrats’ emails, and hacking into election-related computer systems in many states — play no role in these charges.


We don’t yet really know what this means for Mueller’s larger investigation


But the bigger picture is that these indictments really don’t change much about what we know, or tell us much about where Mueller might be going.

Indeed, one of its effects may be to serve as a public and political statement that Mueller’s team isn’t solely focused on the Trump team’s potential wrongdoing — that they’re attempting to fulfill their original charge of investigating Russian interference.

Still, looking at the Mueller investigation as a whole, it’s grown to be quite complex. One Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russians during the election. Another, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russians after the election. Two other ex-Trump aides, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, were indicted for alleged money laundering unrelated to the campaign. And Mueller’s team has been looking into potential obstruction of justice from the Trump administration too.

The new indictments, then, are a piece in this larger puzzle — a puzzle that still isn’t yet solved.

What Mueller’s new Russia indictments mean — and don’t mean

 

[Valerie]

Russian indictments could set stage for more Mueller charges

Russian indictments could set stage for more Mueller charges

 

[Valerie]

“While they went to great pains to say they are not indicting any Americans today, if I was an American and I did cooperate with Russians I would be extremely frightened today,” said former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter.

 

[cnm]

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at a press conference Friday that no American was “a knowing participant” in the Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election, as detailed in the DOJ’s Friday indictment of 13 Russian nationals.

NO COLLUSION -- Rosenstein: No American Was 'A Knowing Participant' In Russian Meddling Indictment

How come I can't find Rosenstein saying the words in quotes? Would that be because he didn't say them? Why yes, that would appear to be the case. Funny that, especially when one considers quotes are supposed to be used to denote actual words. Why did the reporter feel he had to invent words for Rosenstein? A mystery.

 

[cnm]

2013: Trump forms a presidential exploratory committee
http://www.tvguide.com​

 

[abu afak]

yes, i cant wait to hear about this! Because 13 trolls and a few businesses doesnt look good for your ilk

Willfully Stupid and Treasonous Trumpkins are willing to sell out his country for their idiotic party/leader.

Russian Influence Operation Allegedly Ran Like a Propaganda Startup
Federal indictment describes Internet Research Agency as having deep understanding how to use Silicon Valley technology to sow discord
By Robert McMillan,
Deepa Seetharaman and
Georgia Wells
Wall Street Journal - Feb. 17, 2018
Russian Influence Operation Allegedly Ran Like a Propaganda Startup

The alleged Russian campaign to manipulate the U.S. presidential election was orchestrated by what amounted to a propaganda startup, with finance and graphics departments, performance targets and a sophisticated social-media strategy designed to gain maximum attention, according to U.S. authorities.

The federal indictment issued Friday against the Internet Research Agency describes in rich detail an institution with a deep understanding of Silicon Valley technology that allegedly manipulated tools designed to foster open discussion and turned them into weapons for causing discord.

The IRA’s opinion-influencing unit, set up in 2014 to exploit social media, had at least 80 staff by 2016, and a stated goal to spread “distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general,” the indictment says. Employees of that division crafted viral Facebook posts and widely-followed, fraudulent Twitter accounts, according to the indictment. The indictment, secured by special counsel Robert Mueller, also named two related companies and 13 Russian nationals allegedly involved in the scheme.

The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations have detailed ways the Russian efforts allegedly played out in the U.S., with hundreds of thousands of Americans following fake Facebook pages and some even participating in bogus events that the provocateurs organized.

Friday’s indictment provides the clearest portrait yet of how that disruption was allegedly coordinated. Based in St. Petersburg, Russia, IRA employees used free email accounts and online cryptocurrency exchanges, and concealed their Russian origin using virtual private networks and U.S. computer servers, the U.S. indictment says. They used stolen identities to open PayPal accounts, from which they also paid for Facebook and Instagram ads to promote their online groups, according to the indictment.

U.S. authorities say the IRA leveraged these tools to organize flash-mobs in Florida, run ads for “Miners for Trump” in Pennsylvania and to pay a U.S. resident to dress up like Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform at a West Palm Beach rally.

Operational goals were subject to internal audits. In September 2016, an employee was chastised for not criticizing Hillary Clinton enough in a Facebook group called Secured Borders and was instructed to step up the criticism in future posts, according to the indictment.

The charges show how social media, anonymity and messaging technologies that minted citizen journalists during the Arab Spring came to be turned on their head by Russian operatives to sow disinformation during the 2016 election, said John Scott Railton, a researcher with the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies.

“Back in the day if you wanted to run a coup d’état, one of the first things you needed to do was to capture the TV station, capture the radio,” he said. But in the era of Facebook and Twitter, that is no longer the case, he said.

Moscow has repeatedly denied any government effort to influence the U.S. election, and the Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The IRA had a monthly budget of more than $1.25 million to conduct influence operations in various countries, the indictment says. In 2014, it created a special team called the Translator Project that fostered campaigns on social media including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and also Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, according to the indictment.

Working in split shifts designed to make it seem like they were in U.S. time zones, project staffers allegedly posted topics on these networks that would resonate with extreme viewpoints held by Americans. They spent thousands of dollars a month promoting their messages, and used engagement metrics—quantifying the size of the audience reached and the number of likes and comments—to refine them, while developing fictitious U.S. personas into “leaders of public opinion,” according to the indictment.

By the time of the election, many of the Translator Project’s groups had snagged hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting followers, the indictment says.

IRA employees also stole the identities of legitimate organizations and real Americans to add credibility to their cause, according to the indictment. Ahead of the presidential election, they allegedly created the Twitter account @TEN_GOP, which claimed to be the Twitter account for the Tennessee Republican party.
The false account amassed more than 100,000 online followers, more than seven times the 14,000 followers the official Twitter account of the Tennessee Republican Party has attracted, according to calculations by the Journal.

In a statement posted to its website Friday, the Tennessee Republican Party said that it had filed “multiple” reports to Twitter complaining about the @TEN_GOP account. “Each report was either dismissed by Twitter or never responded to,” the party said.

Twitter didn’t comment on the @TEN_GOP account, but said the alleged Russian efforts to disrupt the election “go against everything we at Twitter believe.” As part of its preparation for the U.S. midterm elections, Twitter said it is monitoring trends and spikes in conversations for possible manipulation activity. YouTube didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Facebook reiterated its plans to expand its safety and security team to 20,000 people by the end of 2018. “We know we have more to do to prevent future attacks,” the company said.

Facebook and Twitter said they were working with a Federal Bureau of Investigation task force on election tampering.

The indictment describes in detail how the IRA allegedly organized real-world events throughout the U.S. through Facebook advertisements and direct contact with activists who supported certain causes, tactics previously reported by the Journal and other media outlets.

The IRA page “Born Patriotic” purchased Facebook ads to promote several pro-Trump rallies in Florida in August 2016 that reached 59,000 Facebook users in Florida, according to the indictment. More than 8,300 Facebook users clicked on the ads, which routed users to Being Patriotic’s page on Facebook, the indictment says.

The IRA pages covered some event costs, like travel and equipment rental, transmitting funds to activists through wire transfers and other means, the indictment says.

The alleged Russian influence campaign seemingly flew under the radar of the technology companies. Facebook, Twitter and Google didn’t launch investigations into the Russian influence campaign until after the presidency was decided.

Starting last September, Facebook and other companies publicly reported that they had identified Russian expenditures on their platforms. The indictment says that media reports that Facebook was working with Mr. Mueller’s team spooked the IRA operatives, prompting them to start destroying evidence.

“We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues,” a co-conspirator emailed a relative at the time, according to the indictment. “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.”​

 

[beagle9]

“While they went to great pains to say they are not indicting any Americans today, if I was an American and I did cooperate with Russians I would be extremely frightened today,” said former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter.

What part don't you understand that their were "NO AMERICANS" INVOLVED IN ANY RUSSIAN COLLUSION ?????? IT'S OVER.

 

[beagle9]

yes, i cant wait to hear about this! Because 13 trolls and a few businesses doesnt look good for your ilk

Willfully Stupid and Treasonous Trumpkins are willing to sell out his country for their idiotic party/leader.

Russian Influence Operation Allegedly Ran Like a Propaganda Startup
Federal indictment describes Internet Research Agency as having deep understanding how to use Silicon Valley technology to sow discord
By Robert McMillan,
Deepa Seetharaman and
Georgia Wells
Wall Street Journal - Feb. 17, 2018
Russian Influence Operation Allegedly Ran Like a Propaganda Startup

The alleged Russian campaign to manipulate the U.S. presidential election was orchestrated by what amounted to a propaganda startup, with finance and graphics departments, performance targets and a sophisticated social-media strategy designed to gain maximum attention, according to U.S. authorities.

The federal indictment issued Friday against the Internet Research Agency describes in rich detail an institution with a deep understanding of Silicon Valley technology that allegedly manipulated tools designed to foster open discussion and turned them into weapons for causing discord.

The IRA’s opinion-influencing unit, set up in 2014 to exploit social media, had at least 80 staff by 2016, and a stated goal to spread “distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general,” the indictment says. Employees of that division crafted viral Facebook posts and widely-followed, fraudulent Twitter accounts, according to the indictment. The indictment, secured by special counsel Robert Mueller, also named two related companies and 13 Russian nationals allegedly involved in the scheme.

The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations have detailed ways the Russian efforts allegedly played out in the U.S., with hundreds of thousands of Americans following fake Facebook pages and some even participating in bogus events that the provocateurs organized.

Friday’s indictment provides the clearest portrait yet of how that disruption was allegedly coordinated. Based in St. Petersburg, Russia, IRA employees used free email accounts and online cryptocurrency exchanges, and concealed their Russian origin using virtual private networks and U.S. computer servers, the U.S. indictment says. They used stolen identities to open PayPal accounts, from which they also paid for Facebook and Instagram ads to promote their online groups, according to the indictment.

U.S. authorities say the IRA leveraged these tools to organize flash-mobs in Florida, run ads for “Miners for Trump” in Pennsylvania and to pay a U.S. resident to dress up like Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform at a West Palm Beach rally.

Operational goals were subject to internal audits. In September 2016, an employee was chastised for not criticizing Hillary Clinton enough in a Facebook group called Secured Borders and was instructed to step up the criticism in future posts, according to the indictment.

The charges show how social media, anonymity and messaging technologies that minted citizen journalists during the Arab Spring came to be turned on their head by Russian operatives to sow disinformation during the 2016 election, said John Scott Railton, a researcher with the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies.

“Back in the day if you wanted to run a coup d’état, one of the first things you needed to do was to capture the TV station, capture the radio,” he said. But in the era of Facebook and Twitter, that is no longer the case, he said.

Moscow has repeatedly denied any government effort to influence the U.S. election, and the Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The IRA had a monthly budget of more than $1.25 million to conduct influence operations in various countries, the indictment says. In 2014, it created a special team called the Translator Project that fostered campaigns on social media including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and also Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, according to the indictment.

Working in split shifts designed to make it seem like they were in U.S. time zones, project staffers allegedly posted topics on these networks that would resonate with extreme viewpoints held by Americans. They spent thousands of dollars a month promoting their messages, and used engagement metrics—quantifying the size of the audience reached and the number of likes and comments—to refine them, while developing fictitious U.S. personas into “leaders of public opinion,” according to the indictment.

By the time of the election, many of the Translator Project’s groups had snagged hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting followers, the indictment says.

IRA employees also stole the identities of legitimate organizations and real Americans to add credibility to their cause, according to the indictment. Ahead of the presidential election, they allegedly created the Twitter account @TEN_GOP, which claimed to be the Twitter account for the Tennessee Republican party.
The false account amassed more than 100,000 online followers, more than seven times the 14,000 followers the official Twitter account of the Tennessee Republican Party has attracted, according to calculations by the Journal.

In a statement posted to its website Friday, the Tennessee Republican Party said that it had filed “multiple” reports to Twitter complaining about the @TEN_GOP account. “Each report was either dismissed by Twitter or never responded to,” the party said.

Twitter didn’t comment on the @TEN_GOP account, but said the alleged Russian efforts to disrupt the election “go against everything we at Twitter believe.” As part of its preparation for the U.S. midterm elections, Twitter said it is monitoring trends and spikes in conversations for possible manipulation activity. YouTube didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Facebook reiterated its plans to expand its safety and security team to 20,000 people by the end of 2018. “We know we have more to do to prevent future attacks,” the company said.

Facebook and Twitter said they were working with a Federal Bureau of Investigation task force on election tampering.

The indictment describes in detail how the IRA allegedly organized real-world events throughout the U.S. through Facebook advertisements and direct contact with activists who supported certain causes, tactics previously reported by the Journal and other media outlets.

The IRA page “Born Patriotic” purchased Facebook ads to promote several pro-Trump rallies in Florida in August 2016 that reached 59,000 Facebook users in Florida, according to the indictment. More than 8,300 Facebook users clicked on the ads, which routed users to Being Patriotic’s page on Facebook, the indictment says.

The IRA pages covered some event costs, like travel and equipment rental, transmitting funds to activists through wire transfers and other means, the indictment says.

The alleged Russian influence campaign seemingly flew under the radar of the technology companies. Facebook, Twitter and Google didn’t launch investigations into the Russian influence campaign until after the presidency was decided.

Starting last September, Facebook and other companies publicly reported that they had identified Russian expenditures on their platforms. The indictment says that media reports that Facebook was working with Mr. Mueller’s team spooked the IRA operatives, prompting them to start destroying evidence.

“We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues,” a co-conspirator emailed a relative at the time, according to the indictment. “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.”​

. Why are you writing books to read ??? Good grief. LOL

 

[JQPublic1]

LoL Mikey - your interpretation kinda sucks but carry on my wayward son!

I know. amazing what passes for logic among trumptards

Hillary is not in Trumps league when it comes to lying

No politician is

You have that backwards. Hillary is the epitome of liars.

But Hillary isn't president. Her lies don't affect us anymore. Trump's does. So what are you prepared to do about it?

You are a complete fool if you think Hillary's lies do not affect us anymore. Her lies will affect us for decades. Her lies have displaced our confidence in federal government far more than you can possibly imagine, that being because you suck her ass continuously, regardless of what she does.

I don't really like Hillary anymore than I like you. And believe me...you Trump bots make my skin crawl. But I can't think of a lie ststed by Hillary that affects me or you right now. Can you name one specifically? Hejp me out here.

Classic clown move! Ask for arguments knowing he will deny it it,

Try me...If you have an argument that makes sense I will let you know.

 

[miketx]

I know. amazing what passes for logic among trumptards

You have that backwards. Hillary is the epitome of liars.

But Hillary isn't president. Her lies don't affect us anymore. Trump's does. So what are you prepared to do about it?

You are a complete fool if you think Hillary's lies do not affect us anymore. Her lies will affect us for decades. Her lies have displaced our confidence in federal government far more than you can possibly imagine, that being because you suck her ass continuously, regardless of what she does.

I don't really like Hillary anymore than I like you. And believe me...you Trump bots make my skin crawl. But I can't think of a lie ststed by Hillary that affects me or you right now. Can you name one specifically? Hejp me out here.

Classic clown move! Ask for arguments knowing he will deny it it,

Try me...If you have an argument that makes sense I will let you know.

No, all you'll do is continue to smoke spin and lie.

 

[JQPublic1]

But Hillary isn't president. Her lies don't affect us anymore. Trump's does. So what are you prepared to do about it?

You are a complete fool if you think Hillary's lies do not affect us anymore. Her lies will affect us for decades. Her lies have displaced our confidence in federal government far more than you can possibly imagine, that being because you suck her ass continuously, regardless of what she does.

I don't really like Hillary anymore than I like you. And believe me...you Trump bots make my skin crawl. But I can't think of a lie ststed by Hillary that affects me or you right now. Can you name one specifically? Hejp me out here.

Lies about her emails and private server. Face it, you dupe! Hillary is a goddamned LIAR!

Yep, just as I thought. A nothing burger. Any lies Hillary might have uttered about e-mails and private servers do not affect you or me in any way. Those things have long been rendered irrelevant. The dupe is YOU. The Russians duped idiots like YOU into voting for Trump. Now that does affect us... big time.

Yes, the Russians talked everyone of us into voting for Trump. How did you know? Everyday I laugh more and more at you lying pos.

I guess you haven't heard the week old news accounts of the Mueller indictments. A lot of those Trump rallies you and your boys attended were staged by Russian operatives. They dug under the grass roots and pulled a victory for Trump out of the dirt. And it didn't cost Trump a damn thing. All Trump had to do was take advantage of all the free airtime he got and use it to his advantage. You dummy...YOU were and are still duped.

 

[JQPublic1]

But Hillary isn't president. Her lies don't affect us anymore. Trump's does. So what are you prepared to do about it?

You are a complete fool if you think Hillary's lies do not affect us anymore. Her lies will affect us for decades. Her lies have displ
Wekllaced our confidence in federal government far more than you can possibly imagine, that being because you suck her ass continuously, regardless of what she does.

I don't really like Hillary anymore than I like you. And believe me...you Trump bots make my skin crawl. But I can't think of a lie ststed by Hillary that affects me or you right now. Can you name one specifically? Hejp me out here.

Classic clown move! Ask for arguments knowing he will deny it it,

Try me...If you have an argument that makes sense I will let you know.

No, all you'll do is continue to smoke spin and lie.

If you believe that , move on... I don't have time for small talk about nothing.

 

[Valerie]

“While they went to great pains to say they are not indicting any Americans today, if I was an American and I did cooperate with Russians I would be extremely frightened today,” said former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter.

What part don't you understand that their were "NO AMERICANS" INVOLVED IN ANY RUSSIAN COLLUSION ?????? IT'S OVER.

get a clue, dumbo.

yesterday's indictments are aimed at only one aspect of the investigation.

they prove that the FBI was ABSOLUTELY justified in monitoring russian contacts.

did you forget all those russian contacts that team trump tried to cover-up with lies to congress and the FBI.......... ??

we already know that member's of the campaign had russian contacts and for some reason they all lied about them.

no worries, despite the FAKE NEWS propaganda spread by team treason, mr mueller hasn't forgotten and he is still working on getting to the bottom of the who, what, when, where and why......

 

[Valerie]

These factors — that Trump Jr met with a Russian national to obtain damaging information about a political opponent, and that the meeting was not subsequently disclosed — are "important points of evidence of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia," Wright said.

"They go to intent," he continued. "Trump's inner circle was willing to obtain information from Russian foreign nationals in order to influence our election."

Donald Trump Jr.'s 'staggering admissions' about meeting with a Russian lawyer are skirting a huge question

 

[Valerie]

Nunes "cherry-picked" details for the secret memo without even reading the source material

The Republican lawmaker who spearheaded the campaign to release a classified memo critical of the Justice Department and the FBI "cherry-picked" the document's contents without reading all the source material...

"After months and months of making this argument that the FBI and DOJ are involved in some sort of conspiracy, he didn't even bother to read the materials himself."

The memo was drafted by Republican staffers and reportedly undermines the FBI and Justice Department's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

 

[Valerie]

"the panel had seen evidence of collusion with Russia and obstruction by Donald Trump’s campaign and administration that is not yet public"

House Russia investigation has 'abundance' of evidence against Trump

 

[Valerie]

a lot of information is already in the public domain that points to extensive contacts between the Trump campaign team and the Kremlin, and later efforts by the Trump entourage to cover up those contacts.

...there is much more to come out.

“There is certainly an abundance of non-public information that we’ve gathered in the investigation. ...some of that non-public evidence is evidence on the issue of collusion and some … on the issue of obstruction.”

 

[Valerie]

An anonymous computer hacker, Mr. Trump said, “could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”

 

[Valerie]

Donald Trump Jr. Had Direct Contact With WikiLeaks During Campaign

 

[Valerie]

due to absolutely justified, fully warranted, surveillance of russian contacts, team treason got caught red-handed lying to congress and the FBI.

teflon don proceeded to demonize our country's chief law enforcement agency.

Trump blasts FBI 'leakers' (Fox News)