GOP strategist admits he colluded with Russian hackers to hurt Hillary Clinton, Dem

MAY 25, 2017 04:03 PM PDT

GOP strategist admits he colluded with Russian hackers to hurt Hillary Clinton, Democrats

It’s bigger than Trump

SOPHIA TESFAYE

http://media.salon.com/2017/03/ryan-...py-620x412.jpg

(Credit: Getty/Zach Gibson)

The U.S. intelligence community has long since concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election, and it was reported shortly after the 2016 presidential election that a GOP superPAC linked to Paul Ryan used illegally hacked material to attack Democratic House candidates.

But a bombshell report published on Thursday confirms that Republican political operatives were working with the Russian government to hurt Hillary Clinton and Democrats during the election — the first direct evidence of so-called collusion.

The Wall Street Journal reported that hacked information was posted on a blog run by Aaron Nevins, the political operative, and then passed along to top Trump adviser Roger Stone during the campaign.

The Republican operative in Florida received a trove of Democratic documents from the allegedly Kremlin-linked hacker, Guccifer 2.0. For months, both Congress and the FBI have been scrutinizing evidence that associates of Trump may have colluded with Russia during the campaign.

Nevins confirmed to the Journal that he told hacker Guccifer 2.0 to “feel free to send any Florida based information” after learning that the hacker had tapped into Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) computers last summer.

From the DCCC, Guccifer 2.0 released internal assessments of Democratic congressional candidates, known as “self-opposition research,” to GOP operatives using social media. Nevins told the Journal that, after receiving the stolen documents from the hacker, he “realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.”

The stolen DCCC documents also contained sensitive information on voters in key Florida districts, breaking down how many people were considered dependable Democratic voters, undecided Democrats, Republican voters and the like. Nevins made a war analogy, describing the data he received to Guccifer 2.0 as akin to a “map to where all the troops are deployed.”

After Nevins published some of the material on the blog HelloFLA.com, using his own pseudonym, Guccifer 2.0 sent a link of the information to close Trump associate Roger Stone — who is currently under federal investigation for potential collusion with Russia.

“I just threw an arrow in the dark,” Nevins, who set up a Dropbox account for Guccifer 2.0 to transfer data, told the Journal. “If your interests align,” the operative concluded, “never shut any doors in politics.”

Stone told the Journal that while he did receive a link to Nevins’s blog from Guccifer 2.0, he didn’t share the stolen data published on the blog with anyone.

In addition to receiving hacked information about Democratic races in Florida, Nevins also received internal details about congressional districts in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with close ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan, eventually used the material that was stolen by hackers in attack ads against several Democrats.

Anthony Bustamante, a Republican campaign consultant for Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), told the Journal that he used the stolen information to plan ad buys and better target a mailer effort: “I did adjust some voting targets based on some data I saw from the leaks.”

Republicans ignored Democrats’ pleas not to use the hacked material for political gain.

After Guccifer 2.0 targeted the chair of the DCCC, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to Paul Ryan arguing that “the NRCC’s use of documents stolen by the Russians plays right into the hands of one of the United States’ most dangerous adversaries,” and if the National Republican Campaign Committee continued using the materials, the GOP “will be complicit in aiding the Russian government in its effort to influence American elections.” Ryan never responded.

For his part, Trump has repeatedly denied any coordination with Russian officials. The Kremlin has also rejected any connection to Guccifer 2.0. But both the Department of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence believe Guccifer 2.0 is tied to Russian military intelligence.

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/25/gop-...ton-democrats/

‘Grizzly Steppe': How Russia hacked the US election—intel report

More info @

Donald Trump Concedes That Russia Probably Meddled in Election

For this to get any legs, they're going to have to do several things:

1. find Guccifer 2.0 and if he/she did something wrong that can prosecuted, arrest and charge them
2. cut a deal with Julian Assange to back up that the Wikileaks info is the same info from Guccifer 2.0
3. find a law that makes a foreign release of hacked information a crime
4. find a law that makes publishing or re-releasing foreign releases of hacked information a crime
5. prosecute every entity in the US who published or released any portion of it

To my knowledge there are no such laws which means there are no crimes to prosecute.

There are however all types of laws about releasing classified information. Those are the crimes. If people in law enforcement want to enforce the laws, these are the only crimes on the table related to this "probe".

Otherwise, Americans elected the right person for the job. We did so with full knowledge, ample information, valid reasons based on goals, policies and ability to deliver on those objectives. Russians had nothing to do with it, Guccifer 2.0 had nothing to do with it, Wikileaks had nothing to do with it. Benghazi had to do with it, deleted emails had to do with it, Comey had to do with it, but not the Russians, and not Guccifer 2.0. Wikileaks was a fun thing, an exciting thing for Trump Supporters, but had nothing to do with our being Trump Supporters.

The election is over. Get over it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Judy

For this to get any legs, they're going to have to do several things:

1. find Guccifer 2.0 and if he/she did something wrong that can prosecuted, arrest and charge them . . .

---

Hacker known as Guccifer sentenced to 52 months in prison

By Rachel Weiner and Spencer S. Hsu
September 1, 2016

The Romanian hacker who first revealed that Hillary Clinton used a private email address while she was secretary of state was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison Thursday by a U.S. district judge in Alexandria, Va.
Marcel Lehel Lazar, 44, known online as “Guccifer,” was extradited in 2014 to the United States and pleaded guilty in May to one count each of aggravated identity theft and unauthorized access to a protected computer.

Lazar admitted to victimizing about 100 Americans from his home overseas over 14 months. They included celebrities, business executives and political figures such as Sidney Blumenthal, an adviser with whom Clinton corresponded using her personal email account; confidantes of former president George W. Bush; and former secretary of state Colin L. Powell.

U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris imposed a 52-month sentence, saying a tough penalty was needed to deter future hacking. He cited reports of escalating cyber*attacks against Americans in recent years, including this week’s FBI warnings of intrusions into state election systems.
“This epidemic must stop,” Cacheris said.
P
The State Department released 52,000 pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails as part of a court-ordered process. Here's what else we learned from the publicly released emails. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)


[Hacker who revealed Clinton email address admits to other intrusions]

Hacking passwords and employing social-engineering tactics including fraud, identity theft and harassment, Lazar stored megabytes of victims’ stolen private documents and turned them over to media outlets. He also leaked pictures of Bush’s paintings.

“The extent of the harm caused by defendant’s conduct is incalculable,” federal prosecutors wrote in seeking a maximum penalty of 41/2 years under U.S. sentencing guidelines.

A maximum punishment “would also help address any false perception that unauthorized access of a computer is ever justified or rationalized as the cost of living in a wired society — or even worse, a crime to be celebrated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maya D. Song wrote.

[Cyber researchers confirm Russian government hack of DNC]
Prosecutors said a stern sentence could deter other violators. They cited the case of Guccifer 2.0, an individual or group of hackers who U.S. officials say is tied to Russian intelligence services and who claimed credit for hacking the Democratic National Committee this year.

The online publication of DNC emails by WikiLeaks led to the resignation of the committee’s chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), in July. Guccifer 2.0 was branded “in homage to” Lazar, Song wrote.
Contrary to Lazar’s claims, authorities say he never obtained access to Clinton’s email account.

[‘Guccifer 2.0’ claims credit for DNC hack]

In court documents, Lazar’s public defense counsel asked for a sentence of three years, calling his hacking expeditions “an addiction of sorts.”

Despite his “admittedly brash on-line personality,” public defender Shannon S. Quill wrote, Lazar is actually a devoted father and husband who was frustrated by his inability to find work in the computer sector.

“We need him because life is very hard in Romania,” his wife, Gabriela Violeta Lazar, wrote in a letter to the court.
He was also motivated, Quill wrote, “to expose what he saw as hypocrisy, especially in those connected to the defense and intelligence sectors.”

A high school graduate, Lazar had no formal training or computer expertise. He told the New York Times that he obtained access to the email and social-media accounts of high-profile people by reading their Wikipedia pages and guessing passwords based on their personal information.
Once he had access to one person’s account, he sometimes impersonated them to gain more passwords and personal information.

Although he told the FBI that he was interested in politics and “a better world for our children,” he targeted a seemingly random mix of politicians and celebrities. Along with Bush and Powell, he exposed the personal information of magazine editor Tina Brown, author Candace Bushnell and actor Jeffrey Tambor.

In his 2014 interview, Lazar told FBI agents that he trawled more or less randomly through the online accounts of “important people,” looking for weak spots. He succeeded only about 8 to 10 percent of the time, he estimated.

Prosecutors argued that although Lazar confessed, he showed no remorse and probably will return to hacking. He was on probation for a hacking offense in Romania when he began targeting American celebrities in 2012 and has been sentenced to seven years in prison there.

If he could go back in time and talk to his 2012 self, prosecutors say that he told one FBI agent, “I’d say, ‘All right, you have done a good job.’ ”

Cacheris said Romania’s Justice Ministry requested that Lazar be immediately released to his home country to serve his time there and indicated that he would be conditionally released in 2018 and returned to the United States to serve his prison term here.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.ea4a7eb9f42d

Assange: Some leaks may have been Russian

BY JOE UCHILL - 12/15/16 05:25 PM EST 710

http://thehill.com/sites/default/fil...?itok=r1qM3QSw
© Getty Images

On Sean Hannity’s radio show, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that hacked Democratic documents sent to reporters at Gawker and The Hill may have come from Russia. But, he said, he is confident the emails he received did not come from the same source.

The Hill and other outlets received documents from a hacker or hackers calling itself “Guccifer 2.0.” Guccifer 2.0 also posted separate documents on its own site.

Assange denied knowing Guccifer 2.0 on Hannity's show Thursday.

“Our source is not the Russian government,” said Assange, later claiming WikiLeaks did not receive its material from any state actor, Russia or otherwise.

While the intelligence community agrees that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic National Campaign Committee, there is dissent over whether the Russians did so with an eye to promoting President-elect Donald Trump or just generally wanting to sow chaos.

Assange has been adamant that Russia did not send the files to his site. In fact, his confirmation that a state actor did not send the hacked emails violates a longstanding WikiLeaks policy of not making any comment about sources.

He did leave the possibility open that Guccifer 2.0’s leaks to the media were a Russian plot.

“Now, who is behind these, we don’t know,” he said. “These look very much like they’re from the Russians.

But in some ways, they look very amateur, and almost look too much like the Russians.”In the Hannity interview, Assange also claimed that WikiLeaks received three pages of information about Trump and the Republican National Convention. It chose not to reprint those documents because they had already been printed elsewhere.

The New York Times reported intelligence officials believe that Russia also hacked the Republican National Committee but chose not to leak those files to prop up the Trump candidacy.

Assange also declined to comment on a Daily Mail report that his confidant Craig Murray flew to the United States to retrieve the documents printed on the site. Murray told the Daily Mail that he met with an intermediary in a wooded area near American University in Washington, D.C., who was handing off the documents on behalf of someone with “legal access” to both the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta emails.

“Craig Murray is not authorized to talk on behalf of WikiLeaks,” Assange said sternly.

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecur...e-been-russian

Quote:

---

GOP strategist admits he colluded with Russian hackers to hurt Hillary Clinton, Democrats

---

There were many issues that came from clinton, dnc etc. to hurt trump, republicans.They even had soros $$ to cause hateful riots & the blame in on trump's rhetoric.

The parade of female accusers that went nowhere, the beauty queen baloney talk. The billy bush tape. Even Melania's model photo shoot nude pics flashed on front page papers. clinton, dems were behind all of that.

Seems every week they released something negative on trump's past or his "hate" speech causing riots that they set up. They had a whole network including msm to hurt trump, from feeding clinton debate questions to consistent, non stop negative articles in print, tv, online, radio. It is unfair to mention one side & not the other's underhandedness.

We don't know who Guccifer 2.0 is. Guccifer was Romanian, not Russian. Our "INTEL" community has lost all credibility. They've shown themselves to be unprofessional hacks of the DNC, Anti-Russia Hysterics, Hillary Shrills, and yes, Criminals spying on Americans illegally, unmasking illegally, fabricating intel illegally and being punked stooges themselves of Russian "intel".

So why are they doing this? Well, there's only one reason, they've done something bad and they're afraid the new Administration will find out about it. Is it CIA funding of ISIS in Syria? That would be HUUUGE. Is it CIA funding, staging and direction of the Arab Spring that toppled Libya and sent it into chaos upon their execution of Qaddafi? That would be HUUUGE. Is it CIA funding, staging and direction of the attempted coup in Egypt? That would be HUUUUGE. It could be a lot of things.

It's time for the elected President of the United States to take charge of these organizations. Something in our system has run amok and these INTEL agencies like the FBI, the NSA and the CIA are running totally independent of elected oversight by the President who according to Jim Comey isn't supposed to even meet with their Directors or ask any questions. These agencies are Executive Branch operations who report directly to the President of the United States any time, anywhere in any manner he deems fit. There is no "independence" in these agencies. They aren't "commissions", they are discretionary agencies of the US government reporting to the Commander In Chief no different than the US military.

All 3 agencies need to be cleaned out, purged, and new professionals installed.

Richard Burr, I don't what the hell you're doing, but it ain't right. Your job as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is limited oversight over our Intelligence agencies. I'm frankly not sure why the Congress even has this committee or a House counterpart other than to review funding and appropriations. But whatever it is and someone needs to be delving into just what you think your powers are, but whatever they turn out to be, I know they don't extend to citizens, individuals, political campaigns or the President. That I know for sure.

We have 3 separate branches of government and they are separate for a reason. The President can't throw members of Congress out of office. Members of Congress can't throw a President out of Office unless for "high crimes and misidemeanors". The President can't fire a Judge, they can only be removed by impeachment by Congress. You can't prosecute citizens, individuals or political campaigns. You can't even invade their privacy let alone violate their Constitutional Rights.

Burr, you are making yourself an obvious puppet of Mark Warner, a Bildenberger, a DNC hack of monumental and long-standing proportion, he's also a lawyer while you aren't, and you're making your stupid self a stooge, just like Comey did, of one of the most evil organizations in the world, the Democrat Party.

SHAME ON YOU!!

Russian Once Tied to Trump Aide Seeks Immunity to Cooperate With Congress