Attorney General William Barr's letter to Congress summarizing the Mueller probe sketches out the multi-faceted Russian effort to hack Democratic emails to try to influence the 2016 election.
The coordinated effort that U.S. intelligence determined was directed by the Kremlin constituted 'crimes,' as Barr noted, and resulted in Mueller's indictment of 13 Russians.
The Russian election attack was at the heart of why Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller in the first place.
It also coincided with repeated public statements Trump made during the campaign encouraging better ties with Russia – and a series of lies and omissions told by Trump associates about a sequence of Russia contacts that were uncovered throughout the course of Trump's improbable campaign.
Attorney William Barr's letter describes Russia's effort to influence the 2016 election and notes the indictment of 13 Russians charged with crimes. But it notes the Mueller investigation did not 'find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts'
The series of events left many Democrats and some investigators convinced that Trump or his subordinates may have been in on the extraordinary effort to try to disrupt the U.S. presidential election.
After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May of 2017, it was reported earlier this year, the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump was working for Russia.
The Barr letter includes an unequivocal assessment over whether there was in fact 'coordination' with the Russians.
'The Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign,' Barr wrote.
In brief comments at the White House Sunday, Trump said: 'I just want to tell you that America is the greatest place on Earth'
Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not 'find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government' efforts to influence the election, according to Attorney General William Barr
Attorney General William Barr described the outlines of the Russia investigation in his letter to Congress
As Mueller's earlier indictment of 13 Russian national reveals, the St. Petersburg-based Russian troll farm engaged in a variety of tactics to try to influence the election. These included inflammatory Facebook posts targeting specific slices of the American electorate, including African American voters.
Russian trolls amplified these messages on Twitter. One hashtag linked to the effort urged voters to 'Grow a spine and vote Jill Stein' – an effort to siphon off votes from Clinton and put them in the Green Party candidate's column.
Many of the posts disparaged Hillary Clinton and sought to undermine Trust in her from traditionally Democratic voters.
On the hacking side, the Russian-backed effort was able to use a spear-fishing tactic to obtain years' worth of emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. Those emails made their way to WikiLeaks, which dropped them during key moments of the campaign for maximum impact.
Other emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee fanned a split among Bernie Sanders supporters and Democratic Party members, and resulted in DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's resignation hours before the start of her party's political convention.
Former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump, Roger Stone arrives at Federal Court, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, in Washington. Stone was arrested in the special counsel's Russia investigation and was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing the probe. However he was not charged with conspiring with Russia despite an investigative focus on his communications with WikiLeaks
In this file photo taken on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, a view of a Business center, believed to be the location of the new "troll farm" in St. Petersburg, Russia
Prosecutors say the Kremlin was behind the hacking effort to influence the U.S. presidential election
The Podesta emails provoked a stream of media reports about internal Clinton conflicts in the final days of the campaign.
During the course of the Mueller probe, several Trump associates, including former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn and foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, lied to investigators about their foreign contacts. Others linked to Trump, including former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, failed to disclose Russia contacts on their initial disclosure forms. The omissions fueled speculation that there could be still more contacts yet to be unearthed.
Investigators spent months probing longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone over his electronic communications, including his claims about having information about forthcoming WikiLeaks dumps of Clinton information.
Hackers obtained emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, as well as other Democratic Party emails
But when Stone was indicted, it was for witness tampering, lying investigators, and other alleged crimes – not for conspiring with Russians.
Investigators also sought to untangle a 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians and learned about Michael Cohen's talks about a Trump Moscow tower project. The existence of which was not known until Trump was in office. The meeting was attended by Donald Trump Jr., former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as by a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin.
It was set up after the offer of potential dirt on Hillary Clinton. In another revelation that came out as a result of the probe, longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's communications revealed he was in talks with Russians about a potential Trump tower project in Moscow through the summer of 2016. But the project fizzled.
According to Barr's letter: 'The report outlines the Russian effort to influence the election and documents crimes committed by persons associated with the Russian government in connection with those efforts.'
'The report further explains that a primary consideration for the Special Counsel's investigation was whether any Americans – including individuals associated with the Trump campaign – joined the Russian conspiracies to influence the election, which would be a federal crime.'
Then, in a key line, Barr wrote: 'The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. As the report states: "[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
The fact that Mueller didn't prove Trump or his associates engaged in what is commonly referred to collusion also had a bearing on Mueller's decision not to make a determination one way or the other on obstruction of justice.
'In making this determination, we noted that the Special Counsel recognized that "the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference, and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the President's intent with respect to obstruction Barr wrote.'
The Russians sought to boost Trump and drive down turnout among potential Hillary Clinton supporters
Other ads targeted conservatives and particular regions
Online activity focused on police violence against blacks
The report identifies a Russian focus on targeting black voters
If Trump didn't coordinate or conspire with the Russians, it made it less likely that he would have fired FBI Director James Comey or taken other actions in order to cover up such a crime, Barr was arguing.
In brief comments at the White House Sunday, Trump said: 'I just want to tell you that America is the greatest place on Earth. The greatest place on Earth.
The Mueller report as summarized by Barr determined there were two main Russian efforts to influence the election.
'The first involved attempts by a Russian organization, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election. As noted above, the Special Counsel did not find that any U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly coordinated with the IRA in its efforts, although the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian nationals and entities in connection with these activities,' he wrote.
'The second element involved the Russian government's efforts to conduct computer hacking operations designed to gather and disseminate information to influence the election. The Special Counsel found that Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks,' Barr continued.
Mueller's probe obtained eight convictions
'Based on these activities, the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into computers in the United States for purposes of influencing the election. But as noted above; the Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple. offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.'
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/03/25/how-russia-hacked-democratic-emails-to-influence-the-election-without-trump-coordination/
Main photo article Attorney General William Barr’s letter to Congress summarizing the Mueller probe sketches out the multi-faceted Russian effort to hack Democratic emails to try to influence the 2016 election.
The coordinated effort that U.S. intelligence determined was directed by the Kremlin constituted...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/24/23/11407314-6845587-image-a-22_1553471623211.jpg
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