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The Robert Mueller Investigation

Hugo Stiglitz

By Hugo Stiglitz
in Cloak Room

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wildcat09

wildcat09 28,392

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, TtomTerrific said:

there was nothing "wide spread" about it then......how's it looking now?  

you do this, you better have the numbers or you will lose...as you are experiencing currently. 

Good thing we've got the numbers.

You know what happens when a few thousand nazis march? Hundreds of thousands of "limp wristed faggots" march against them. Ask the British Union of Fascists how that works out.

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Goredho
Goredho

Just to make sure I have the alternative facts straight...  Our government -- but I'm guessing only the deep state part of it --- is now guilty of torturing a poor, naive Russian exchange student who

Incredulity
Incredulity

liberals suddenly being terrified of Russia and manic for election integrity is just pure comedy gold.

Chooky
Chooky

I don't believe for a moment that any of this is entertaining to you.  I think it gives you a bit of anxiety knowing that your best weapon against a group who you despise is a bumbling fraud as a busi

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TtomTerrific

TtomTerrific 200

Posted
Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Good thing we've got the numbers.

You know what happens when a few thousand nazis march? Hundreds of thousands of "limp wristed faggots" march against them. Ask the British Union of Fascists how that works out.

dude.......you should have just posted "fox news" or some shit and save the key stokes.

 

Nazis?   really?

you are activley advocating for a racial division in the elecorate for your own political advantage and and losing, horribly, because you haven't ....and apparently can't,...played this all of the way out.

 

now..fuck..we have this bimbo as our President and the lid is off...but that is YOU...mother fucker...that is YOU that did that...I begged you not to but you couldn't wait for more "prosecutoerial discrestion" and "executive overreach" and now fucking hate it that is coming back to you in spades, in a very ugly way  you are now uncomfortable with and are ready to go to war with the "Nazi's" again....

like

fucking

clock 

work

and 

you

don't 

even

see

it

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JimmyJames

JimmyJames 12,267

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, TtomTerrific said:

most of the time   

y'all have been alowed to run amok on this website, with good reason considering our President...but I had to stop in and mention the insane hypocricy as it pertains to AG''s and their roles in "special investigations"

 

once again...now that governmental oversight into the politcal motivations of its members has been comprimised forever, please expect the very worst to come back at you now that you have made this extended run at the incumbent...it is not a surpise nor is it unpopular...just so you know.

Thanks for letting us know.

And I fer one agree, the damn libtards have been allowed to run amok on this website for far too long. Years even. I’ve longed for someone like you to come along and set those heathens on the correct path. Looks like you’re just the guy to do it. 

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JimmyJames

JimmyJames 12,267

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Posted

That was the best I could do. It’s tough to negotiate with someone flying high on cocaine. They tend to be a little irrational.

Basically you got four days to pack up your fannie pack, gather up your weed, and clear on outta here.  This is now trump country from this point on. 

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Dirk X West

Dirk X West 771

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

That was the best I could do. It’s tough to negotiate with someone flying high on cocaine. They tend to be a little irrational.

Basically you got four days to pack up your fannie pack, gather up your weed, and clear on outta here.  This is now trump country from this point on. 

My boyfriend's going to cry like a baby when I tell him.  

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JimmyJames

JimmyJames 12,267

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

So, if Assange is coming to America, I guess we’ll have to reopen the Mueller investigation.

Cmon Hugo. You and your attempts to put the thread back on track.

Alright I’ll play along. No i don’t think this means we reopen the mueller investigation. But I’m assuming he’s like Eddie Murphy and he’s Coming to America.

Since you’re the right man to ask. What happens next? 

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triplehorn

triplehorn 2,664

Posted
Posted

Pretty comprehensive current state of affairs article:  Prepare for Mueller’s long shadow

Lots of good stuff in here:

Quote

Robert Mueller’s report may be just days away from release, but a pair of high-profile new cases surfacing in the past 24 hours signals that the arm of his Russia investigation is long indeed.

The latest developments: charges unsealed in Virginia against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the indictment of former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig.

Though seemingly unrelated, the two cases, legal experts say, showcase how threads from the Mueller probe could continue to yield new evidence and even more charges for months, if not years, to come — tied to everything from Russian interference in the 2016 election to the hush-money payment scheme Donald Trump’s campaign designed to help sway the last White House race, from the fundraising for Trump’s 2017 inauguration to unregistered foreign lobbyists working in the U.S.

“The Mueller report was just the first step,” said Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor from Virginia. “What these recent events show me is that Robert Mueller has created an army of acolytes and those soldiers are now embedded in the Justice Department, Eastern District of Virginia, Southern District of New York and Washington D.C. These acolytes are trained, they’re hungry and they’re determined.”

At DOJ, Attorney General William Barr has come under fire from Democrats for releasing top-line findings tied to Mueller’s work that Trump has used to claim “total EXONERATION” even though the special counsel’s report said no such thing.

But Barr earlier this week also signaled DOJ is far from finished with work spinning out of the Mueller probe, explaining to lawmakers that his lawyers are working with the special counsel’s office to scrub information from his report so it doesn’t harm “a number of cases that are still being pursued.”

In the Assange case, British police on Thursday arrested the WikiLeaks founder at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London — a move made in response to a U.S. extradition request on charges of attempting to hack into classified material on U.S. government computers in 2010. The U.S. indictment was obtained by federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., in March 2018 and does not appear to have a direct connection to WikiLeaks’ role in publishing hacked Democratic emails central to the mandate of Mueller’s investigators.

But Assange’s delivery into the hands of the British authorities and in turn over to the U.S. “will reopen the Russian collusion affair,” said Philip Lacovara, a former counsel for the Watergate prosecution team.

Noting the pressure U.S. officials exerted on their British counterparts, Lacovara said, “DOJ evidently retains considerable interest in the information that he can supply. He knows where the hacked DNC emails came from, and he knows when and how the Trump campaign learned about this treasure trove of political dirt. He also knows whether the Trump campaign coordinated the timing of the leaks for political advantage. He is also likely to know whether anyone from the Trump campaign actively solicited additional hacking.”

Former Obama DOJ spokesman Matt Miller said Mueller, who submitted his final report to Barr on March 22, didn’t need to keep his Russia probe alive “just on the unlikely hope that Julian Assange would provide him something valuable.”

Still, Miller said he does expect other U.S. prosecutors will try to question Assange on the Russian hackings that upended the 2016 American presidential election. “But they probably assume he’s not likely to be cooperative, and if he is, they can bring a case through another office,” he said.

The extradition treaty between the U.S. and the United Kingdom contains a provision intended to prevent either country from obtaining extradition on one set of charges and then charging someone with something different. However, the extraditing country can waive that aspect of the treaty, which would complicate Assange’s efforts to fight extradition on those grounds, lawyers said.

Assange’s legal team is likely to fight his extradition by citing another aspect of the treaty — a ban on forcibly transferring people to face charges on “political offenses.” The charge Assange was indicted on is conspiracy to commit hacking, but his alleged co-conspirator — former Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning — was convicted by a military court-martial of six Espionage Act offenses of releasing classified information during the same hacking spree.

Since espionage is a classic political offense under extradition law, legal experts expect Assange’s defense to argue that the case against him is fundamentally “political” and ineligible for extradition.

As for Craig, the former White House counsel was charged Thursday by a federal grand jury with making false statements and concealing material information about his work in private practice lobbying on behalf of the Ukrainian government.

The two-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. says Craig, 74, purposefully and repeatedly misled federal investigators about his need to register as a foreign lobbyist, including in 2017 when interviewed by prosecutors for the special counsel's office.

The charges against Craig are tied to work he did preparing a report for the Ukrainian government that was intended to be used by Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was lobbying for then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

In a statement issued before the indictment was made public, Craig’s lawyers disputed the notion that his work qualified as foreign lobbying while also accusing the government of launching a “misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion.”

DOJ has been signaling for months its plan to pursue more foreign lobbying investigations under a new team led by Brandon Van Grack, a former Mueller prosecutor who worked on the special counsel’s case against Manafort that netted a 7½-year prison sentence for the globetrotting GOP consultant.

As Mueller prepares to leave the government payroll, his name will be coming up again and again in other venues, too. For starters, federal prosecutors last month said that the grand jury the special counsel used to investigate Russian collusion is “continuing robustly” even though the Russia probe is over.

Prosecutors in New York also continue to examine hush-money payments involving Trump’s 2016 campaign, which The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week included interviews last year with two close associates of the president: former White House communications director and former Trump organization spokeswoman Hope Hicks and Keith Schiller, Trump’s longtime private security director.

Roger Stone, another longtime Trump associate, remains on track to go on trial in early November for lying to Congress and intimidating another witness in the Russia probe who was in contact with Assange in 2016. The charges against Stone were brought by the special counsel and have since been handed off to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington D.C., though four of Mueller’s prosecutors remain listed on the docket.

Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI, is expected to testify later this summer in a case brought by federal prosecutors in Virginia charging one of his former business partners with failing to register as a foreign lobbyist for Turkey. Flynn’s lawyers heeded a federal judge’s suggestion last December that they postpone sentencing for their client until his cooperation with the government had concluded.

Another Mueller cooperator, Rick Gates, also is still in limbo about his fate. Attorneys for both Gates and Mueller told a federal judge in mid-March that the former Trump campaign deputy and ex-Manafort associate was still cooperating in “several ongoing investigations” and wasn’t ready to be sentenced yet.

Federal prosecutors earlier this week also filed a sentencing memo in their case against Samuel Patten, praising the 47-year old lobbyist and former Manafort associate for his service as a “valuable resource” who met or spoke by phone nine times with Mueller’s team and other government investigators as part of his cooperation agreement after pleading guilty last summer for failing to register as a foreign lobbyist.

The Patten sentencing memo held back in describing what exactly he’d helped on, explaining that the government would file that material under seal because it “includes sensitive information about other investigations and persons who have not been (and may not be) charged with a crime.” In his guilty plea, Patten admitted to paying $50,000 for a pro-Russian oligarch to attend Trump’s inauguration.

The president is likely to face repeated and awkward questions about the Mueller probe even though the investigation itself has been deemed complete. During the 2016 White House race, for example, Trump repeatedly praised WikiLeaks for revealing embarrassing correspondence from his rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. On Thursday at the White House, the president distanced himself from the group when reporters asked him about its founder facing charges from the U.S. government.

“I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It’s not my thing,” the president replied.

The full extent of cases with Mueller’s fingerprints on them also remains unclear. In a March 24 letter to Congress, Barr said the special counsel referred “several matters to other offices for further action” while adding that the special counsel had no more new indictments of his own or sealed prosecutions hiding in the federal court system.

In his testimony Tuesday before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Barr noted the DOJ review of the Mueller report is aimed at those other cases and ensuring information doesn’t get out that “would impinge upon either the ability of the prosecutors to prosecute the cases or the fairness to the defendants.”

Several former DOJ veterans said the still-lingering Mueller cases and their offshoots collectively show that the Russia probe is far from over — even if Barr publicly said it was last month.

“The ongoing activity appears to indicate that Mueller didn’t simply drop the mic and walk away without ensuring that mechanisms are in place to run out the tentacles of his investigation,” said Randall Samborn, a former senior Justice Department aide on the George W. Bush-era investigation into who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Samborn noted that DOJ first confirmed a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks in 2010, while Mueller was FBI director, and said that Assange’s arrest in London “illustrates the adage that ‘you can run, but you can’t hide.’”

“The arc of federal investigations and prosecutions sometimes seems to stretch endlessly and often extends beyond the tenure of individual agents and prosecutors,” Samborn said, “so it should not be surprising to see activity ripple from Mueller’s exhaustive investigation.”

 

--->

"But Assange’s delivery into the hands of the British authorities and in turn over to the U.S. “will reopen the Russian collusion affair,” said Philip Lacovara, a former counsel for the Watergate prosecution team.

Noting the pressure U.S. officials exerted on their British counterparts, Lacovara said, “DOJ evidently retains considerable interest in the information that he can supply. He knows where the hacked DNC emails came from, and he knows when and how the Trump campaign learned about this treasure trove of political dirt. He also knows whether the Trump campaign coordinated the timing of the leaks for political advantage. He is also likely to know whether anyone from the Trump campaign actively solicited additional hacking.”

Assange/Wikileaks ---> Roger Stone ---> Trump campaign (see text of Stone indictment for evidence communications w TrumpCo around coordinating Wiki drops).

The Mueller report is a hiker's equivalent of encountering a false summit - keep climbing !

 

 

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wildcat09

wildcat09 28,392

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, TtomTerrific said:

dude.......you should have just posted "fox news" or some shit and save the key stokes.

 

Nazis?   really?

you are activley advocating for a racial division in the elecorate for your own political advantage and and losing, horribly, because you haven't ....and apparently can't,...played this all of the way out.

 

now..fuck..we have this bimbo as our President and the lid is off...but that is YOU...mother fucker...that is YOU that did that...I begged you not to but you couldn't wait for more "prosecutoerial discrestion" and "executive overreach" and now fucking hate it that is coming back to you in spades, in a very ugly way  you are now uncomfortable with and are ready to go to war with the "Nazi's" again....

like

fucking

clock 

work

and 

you

don't 

even

see

it

Party of personal responsibility right here. I’m sure you think victims of domestic violence provoke their attackers and thus have it coming too.

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GRHorn

GRHorn 105

Posted
Posted
58 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

Pretty comprehensive current state of affairs article:  Prepare for Mueller’s long shadow

Lots of good stuff in here:

--->

"But Assange’s delivery into the hands of the British authorities and in turn over to the U.S. “will reopen the Russian collusion affair,” said Philip Lacovara, a former counsel for the Watergate prosecution team.

Noting the pressure U.S. officials exerted on their British counterparts, Lacovara said, “DOJ evidently retains considerable interest in the information that he can supply. He knows where the hacked DNC emails came from, and he knows when and how the Trump campaign learned about this treasure trove of political dirt. He also knows whether the Trump campaign coordinated the timing of the leaks for political advantage. He is also likely to know whether anyone from the Trump campaign actively solicited additional hacking.”

Assange/Wikileaks ---> Roger Stone ---> Trump campaign (see text of Stone indictment for evidence communications w TrumpCo around coordinating Wiki drops).

The Mueller report is a hiker's equivalent of encountering a false summit - keep climbing !

 

 

9-FC5221-D-E47-D-4480-A1-CA-3064-D542-EB

 

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Jack Straw

Jack Straw 2,953

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, TtomTerrific said:

sorry if this has been uncomfortable for the vox populi aound here. nowadays......but fuck you. 

You can have that perspective, and it doesn't faze me one bit. But the reality is I continue to positively impact hundreds of lives each year through my job and enjoy the mutual respect and gratitude shared with my students and colleagues. And now I’m going to go pack for my family's 10-day trip to Orlando.

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Chooky

Chooky 13,277

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Posted

TtomTerrific Goes to the Lake

Guy on jet ski:  [slowing down to approach TtomTerrific]  bro, the sun is so bright that I can't even spell today.

TtomTerrific:  You're telling me.  I haven't spelled shit all day.  I was just trying to explain that to some libtards who are gay but they couldn't get it because they're so libtarded.

Guy on jet ski:  There were some guys spelling pretty good yesterday over by Cedar Breaks.

TtomTerrific:  Well they must have spelled everything correctly already, because the spelling is shit today.

Guy on jet ski:  Sometimes it's just nice to be out in the fresh air trying to spell even if you can't spell anything.  Anyway, keep at it.  Spelling is usually better in the evening.  Take it easy.

TtomTerrific:  You too.  Love your wrists, by the way.  Strong.  Firm.  Stiff.  Not at all faggoty.  With wrists like that you'll never rile up all the blacks.  You're good people.    

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triplehorn

triplehorn 2,664

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, GRHorn said:

9-FC5221-D-E47-D-4480-A1-CA-3064-D542-EB

 

"...One of my best friends growing up was gay. ... It’s never been an issue for me. ... I think there was a time in my life, probably in college, that I wished every guy was gay, because it just meant more women for me! ‘I don’t know why you guys have a problem with this thing! I think it’d be great! I wish everyone was gay!’ ... That’s always the way I thought about it. ... I have no issue with it. If I have to suffer through marriage, why shouldn’t they?"

 

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TtomTerrific

TtomTerrific 200

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Chooky said:

TtomTerrific Goes to the Lake

Guy on jet ski:  [slowing down to approach TtomTerrific]  bro, the sun is so bright that I can't even spell today.

TtomTerrific:  You're telling me.  I haven't spelled shit all day.  I was just trying to explain that to some libtards who are gay but they couldn't get it because they're so libtarded.

Guy on jet ski:  There were some guys spelling pretty good yesterday over by Cedar Breaks.

TtomTerrific:  Well they must have spelled everything correctly already, because the spelling is shit today.

Guy on jet ski:  Sometimes it's just nice to be out in the fresh air trying to spell even if you can't spell anything.  Anyway, keep at it.  Spelling is usually better in the evening.  Take it easy.

TtomTerrific:  You too.  Love your wrists, by the way.  Strong.  Firm.  Stiff.  Not at all faggoty.  With wrists like that you'll never rile up all the blacks.  You're good people.    

resoecyt

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Tom

Tom 2,959

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, TtomTerrific said:

dude.......you should have just posted "fox news" or some shit and save the key stokes.

 

Nazis?   really?

you are activley advocating for a racial division in the elecorate for your own political advantage and and losing, horribly, because you haven't ....and apparently can't,...played this all of the way out.

 

now..fuck..we have this bimbo as our President and the lid is off...but that is YOU...mother fucker...that is YOU that did that...I begged you not to but you couldn't wait for more "prosecutoerial discrestion" and "executive overreach" and now fucking hate it that is coming back to you in spades, in a very ugly way  you are now uncomfortable with and are ready to go to war with the "Nazi's" again....

like

fucking

clock 

work

and 

you

don't 

even

see

it

Yeah, feel free to go fuck yourself and every other GOP'er who wants to blame Trump's presidency on Democrats.  We didn't choose him over 15 other Republican candidates.  We didn't choose him in the general election.  Go drink some coffee, sober up, and realize that your stupid, made up conspiracies on Obama using the IRS as a weapon was just a stupid myth created by people who couldn't fucking handle someone black and Democrat being president.  No different than the birther nonsense.

I honestly haven't been keeping track but I believe Trump is now in third place behind Nixon and Reagan as having the biggest piece of shit criminal administrations to ever serve this country. That number will probably grow, but congrats on the accomplishment so far.  You must be proud.  

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TtomTerrific

TtomTerrific 200

Posted
Posted
57 minutes ago, Tom said:

Yeah, feel free to go fuck yourself and every other GOP'er who wants to blame Trump's presidency on Democrats.  We didn't choose him over 15 other Republican candidates.  We didn't choose him in the general election.  Go drink some coffee, sober up, and realize that your stupid, made up conspiracies on Obama using the IRS as a weapon was just a stupid myth created by people who couldn't fucking handle someone black and Democrat being president.  No different than the birther nonsense.

I honestly haven't been keeping track but I believe Trump is now in third place behind Nixon and Reagan as having the biggest piece of shit criminal administrations to ever serve this country. That number will probably grow, but congrats on the accomplishment so far.  You must be proud.  

this is solid gold.... 

 

you are EXACTLY why Trump won the primary and the General election... 

 

beautifully composed, dipshit. 

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NaTeWHO

NaTeWHO 838

Posted
Posted

Am I supposed to love or hate Rod Rosenstein? I never know when this shit depends on the wind.

Here are some of his quotes from the article.

WSJ Link

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended the Justice Department’s handling of the special counsel’s still-secret report, saying Attorney General William Barr is “being as forthcoming as he can” about his process for redacting and releasing the roughly 400-page document.

"He’s being as forthcoming as he can, and so this notion that he’s trying to mislead people, I think is just completely bizarre,” Mr. Rosenstein said.

“It would be one thing if you put out a letter and said, ‘I’m not going to give you the report,’ ” Mr. Rosenstein said. “What he said is, ‘Look, it’s going to take a while to process the report. In the meantime, people really want to know what’s in it. I’m going to give you the top-line conclusions.’ That’s all he was trying to do.”

I guess we'll find out.

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Hugo Stiglitz

Hugo Stiglitz 23,246

Posted
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Posted
5 hours ago, NaTeWHO said:

Am I supposed to love or hate Rod Rosenstein? I never know when this shit depends on the wind.

Here are some of his quotes from the article.

WSJ Link

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended the Justice Department’s handling of the special counsel’s still-secret report, saying Attorney General William Barr is “being as forthcoming as he can” about his process for redacting and releasing the roughly 400-page document.

"He’s being as forthcoming as he can, and so this notion that he’s trying to mislead people, I think is just completely bizarre,” Mr. Rosenstein said.

“It would be one thing if you put out a letter and said, ‘I’m not going to give you the report,’ ” Mr. Rosenstein said. “What he said is, ‘Look, it’s going to take a while to process the report. In the meantime, people really want to know what’s in it. I’m going to give you the top-line conclusions.’ That’s all he was trying to do.”

I guess we'll find out.

It’s complicated with Rosenstein.  He’s almost solely responsible for the Mueller investigation but he also played a role in the Comey firing.  He’s a witness in the obstruction investigation but could also arguably be implicated.  In a perfect world he should have recused himself from all this after he appointed Mueller but then who would oversee Mueller?  

Bottom line is Rosenstein is a Trump appointee and a Republican still working for the DOJ.  

He did a good job protecting the Mueller investigation when Sessions was AG but there’s much we don’t know. 

His tell all book should be a best seller. 

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Tom

Tom 2,959

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, TtomTerrific said:

you are EXACTLY why Trump won the primary and the General election... 

 

That's strange, because I've never voted for Trump. I voted Sanders in the primary and Clinton in the general.  I'd even go as far as saying that I had absolutely nothing to do with Trump being president.  

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bolverk

bolverk 28,892

Posted
Posted

Inside the Russian effort to target Sanders supporters — and help elect Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-russian-effort-to-target-sanders-supporters--and-help-elect-trump/2019/04/11/741d7308-5576-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0dc4cce45062

After Bernie Sanders lost his primary campaign for president against Hillary Clinton in 2016, a Twitter account called Red Louisiana News reached out to his supporters to help sway the general election. “Conscious Bernie Sanders supporters already moving towards the best candidate Trump! #Feel the Bern #Vote Trump 2016,” the account tweeted.

The tweet was not actually from Louisiana, according to an analysis by Clemson University researchers. Instead, it was one of thousands of accounts identified as based in Russia, part of a cloaked effort to persuade supporters of the Vermont senator to elect Trump. “Bernie Sanders says his message resonates with Republicans,” said another Russian tweet. 

While much attention has focused on the question of whether the Trump campaign encouraged or conspired with Russia, the effort to target Sanders supporters has been a lesser-noted part of the story. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, in a case filed last year against 13 Russians accused of interfering in the U.S. presidential campaign, said workers at a St. Petersburg facility called the Internet Research Agency were instructed to write social media posts in opposition to Clinton but “to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.” 

That strategy could receive new attention with the release of Mueller’s report, expected within days.  

Spoiler

 

Sanders told Vermont Public Radio last year that one of his campaign workers figured out what was going on, alerted the Clinton campaign and told them, “I think these guys are Russians.” But Sanders said he never knew, and he later backed off his suggestion that his staff did. A spokesman referred questions to 2016 campaign manager Jeff Weaver, who said in an interview that Sanders “misspoke a little bit and conflated a few of the facts. . . . He did not know, I did not know, none of us knew” that Russia was behind the efforts. 

Only recently, with the latest analysis of Twitter data, has the extent of the Russian disinformation campaign been documented on that social media platform. 

A pair of Clemson University researchers, at the request of The Washington Post, examined English-language tweets identified as coming from Russia, many of which were designed to influence the election. It is impossible to say how many were targeted at Sanders supporters because many don’t include his name. Some 9,000 of the Russian tweets used the word “Bernie,” which were “liked” 59,281 times and retweeted 61,804 times. 

But that was only one element of the Russian effort to target Sanders supporters, the researchers said. Many thousands of other tweets, with no direct reference to Sanders, were also designed to appeal to his backers, urging them to do anything but vote for Clinton in the general election. 

“I think there is no question that Sanders was central to their strategy. He was clearly used as a mechanism to decrease voter turnout for Hillary Clinton,” said one of the Clemson researchers, Darren Linvill, associate professor of communications. The tweets examined in the new analysis “give us a much clearer understanding of the tactics they were using. It was certainly a higher volume than people thought.”

The Russian social-media strategy underscores a challenge that Sanders faces as he once again seeks the Democratic presidential nomination, this time in a crowded field. Many Sanders supporters believe he was treated unfairly by the Democratic Party and Clinton, a point the Russians sought to capitalize on as they worked to undermine Clinton in the November election. 

Although Sanders later denounced the Kremlin’s efforts and campaigned for Clinton, some Democrats believe he could have done more to smooth over tensions and encourage his supporters to support his onetime opponent. A former senior Clinton campaign official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid publicly criticizing Sanders ahead of the 2020 primaries, said that there remains bitterness over the way Sanders repeatedly said the system was tilted against him.

Sanders said in May 2016 that party rules enabling Clinton to collect “superdelegates” did not meet the definition of “rigged,” but he called it a “dumb process which certainly has disadvantaged our campaign.” 

The effort to promote Sanders as a way to influence the U.S. election began shortly after he declared his candidacy in spring 2015, according to Mueller’s indictment of the Russians. Russia’s aim was to defeat or weaken Clinton, who had angered Russian President Vladimir Putin when she had been secretary of state.

One reason that Sanders was on Russia’s radar has been little noted: he, like Trump, opposed trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Russian President Vladimir Putin had been critical of the TPP, saying it was secretive and “hardly facilitates sustainable development of Asia Pacific.”

During the primaries, Sanders gave at least three interviews to a Russia-controlled television network, RT, in which his trade stance was highlighted. The network in February 2016 criticized MSNBC for breaking away from Sanders after he said he was “helping to lead the opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.” The network posted a story headlined, “Bernie Sanders 'censored' by MSNBC while criticizing trade deal.” 

Around the same time that Sanders was featured on RT, Russian employees at the Internet Research Agency were given a document explaining how to influence the U.S. election. The workers were told to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump — we support them),” according to Mueller’s indictment of the Russians. 

The Twitter database shows the impact. The tweets sent from Russia, cloaked to look as though they came from Americans, included: “Bernie Sanders looks to black voters to boost his underdog campaign”; “Hillary Clinton’s summer of drama creates openings for Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden”; and “I’m for Bernie all the way!” 

Then, in July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails from the Democratic National Committee that suggested the party machinery was tilted against Sanders. The DNC computers were later revealed to have been hacked by Russia. The hack prompted Trump to stoke the divide among Democrats. “Leaked e-mails of DNC show plans to destroy Bernie Sanders,” Trump tweeted July 23, 2016. “. . . On-line from Wikileakes [sic], really vicious. RIGGED!” 

Russian trolls significantly increased their effort to persuade Sanders supporters to oppose Clinton in the general election. One of their methods was to try to convince African Americans that they couldn’t trust her. 

“#BlackMenForBernie Leader Switches to Trump! I will Never Vote for Hillary,Welcome aboard the Trump Train,” said a tweet from an account that was said to come from Texas and was identified as “Southern. Conservative Pro God. Anti Racism.” The account, actually operated by a Russian, had 72,121 followers. The message was liked 260 times and retweeted 295 times, according to the Clemson database.

Linvill, the Clemson researcher, said Sanders was seen as “just a tool” to the Russians. “He is a wedge to drive into the Democratic Party,” resulting in lower turnout for Clinton, he said. The tweets suggested either voting for Trump or a third-party candidate such as Green Party nominee Jill Stein, or writing in Sanders’s name. 

While it is impossible to show a direct correlation between a Russian-based tweet and someone’s vote in the United States, a post-election survey conducted for Ohio State University documented how false stories spread on social media may have caused a decline in turnout for Clinton. Only 77 percent of those surveyed who had voted for Barack Obama in 2012 supported Clinton in 2016; 10 percent backed Trump, 4 percent voted for third-party candidates, and 8 percent did not vote, according to the YouGov survey. 

In an effort to demonstrate how inaccurate information makes its way into the mainstream, the survey asked respondents about three demonstrably false articles that had been widely distributed. A quarter of respondents believed the false story that Clinton was in “very poor health,” 10 percent believed that Trump had been endorsed by the Pope, and 35 percent (including 20 percent of Obama supporters) believed that Clinton had approved weapons sales to “Islamic jihadists, including ISIS.” 

The Ohio State team concluded in a soon-to-be published final version of its report that “belief in these fake news stories is very strongly linked to defection from the Democratic ticket by 2012 Obama voters.” Obama voters who recognized all three stories as false voted for Clinton at a rate of 89 percent, while 61 percent who believed one of the stories was false voted for her, and 17 percent of those who believed two of the false stories supported Clinton. 

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, said Twitter had studied what happened during the presidential election and will apply those lessons as the 2020 campaign unfolds. 

 “Protecting the integrity of public conversation around elections is core to Twitter's mission,” Roth said in a statement to The Post. “Since 2016, we've launched new policies, significantly scaled our enforcement against malicious automation, built strong partnerships within the industry and with government entities, and opened the largest public archive of potential information operations online, including thousands of Russian-linked accounts we have removed.”  

Sanders told Vermont Public Radio last year that the Russians “were playing a really disgusting role because they don’t believe in anything. And all they want to do is sow division in this country, bring people against each other. So what they were saying is — in so many words — is Bernie Sanders is not going to win, so if you are a Bernie Sanders supporter, let me tell you, Hillary Clinton is a criminal, a murderer, a terrible person . . . crazy, all of these disgusting things.” 

 Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said “the Russians will strike again.” As a result, he said, it is imperative for “everyone else, especially Democratic candidates, to work together and support each other to defend against these threats.”  

 

 

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SmokeyTheBear

SmokeyTheBear 5,551

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Posted
30 minutes ago, Enchubben said:

Honest unbiased question: Outside of trump actual involvement and the investigation, between Hillary and Trump, which candidate would Russia have preferred win and why? Which would have been/is tougher on russia and their interests?

1. Anyone not named Clinton. 

2. Whoever would disrupt the status quo

They just want chaos in our society and don't care who it is to accomplish that.

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bolverk

bolverk 28,892

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, Enchubben said:

Honest unbiased question: Outside of trump actual involvement and the investigation, between Hillary and Trump, which candidate would Russia have preferred win and why? Which would have been/is tougher on russia and their interests?

Putin clearly preferred Trump. How do we know this? Because he said so, plus the actions of the Russian troll farm. We also have news footage showing Russian officials celebrating and drinking champagne the day after Trump was elected. Moreover, that has been the official declaration by our intelligence agencies.

Why? Because Putin had a personal vendetta against Clinton from her time as Secretary of State.

Who would've been tougher? It's impossible to say for a certainty because that's a hypothetical that didn't happen in this timeline.

All we know is that Putin preferred Trump. That can no longer be a question.

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GW Hayduke

GW Hayduke 1,943

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Posted (edited)
49 minutes ago, Enchubben said:

Honest unbiased question: Outside of trump actual involvement and the investigation, between Hillary and Trump, which candidate would Russia have preferred win and why? Which would have been/is tougher on russia and their interests?

See the Post story above. Russia preferred Trump and Sanders. They both presented anti globalist views for America. Both were against the TPP and both were interested in restricting free trade with the idea it would protect US workers at home. A retracting US economic footprint in the world squarely fits with Putin’s desire to expand Russia’s 

Edited by GW Hayduke
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