 A memo written by the Democratic minority of the House Intelligence Committee, released Saturday with the approval of the FBI and Department of Justice, disputes the narrative put forth in the memo released February 2 by the supposedly-recused Republican chairman of the committee, Representative Devin Nunes. The rebuttal memo primarily deals with the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant and two extensions that the Department of Justice obtained on Carter Page, foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. The Nunes memo asserted that the FBI and Department of Justice improperly obtained the FISA warrant by using information contained in the report of a British citizen working for an American company hired by individuals politically aligned with Hillary Clinton. Page was already known to investigators before he joined the Trump campaign, due to several instances of Russian operatives attempting to recruit Page to spy for the Russian government. An important passage in the rebuttal memo explains that by September 2016, “... the FBI had already opened sub-inquiries into [redacted] individuals linked to the Trump campaign: [redacted] and former campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page. As Committee testimony bears out, the FBI would have continued its investigation, including against [redacted] individuals, even if it had never received information from Steele, never applied for a FISA warrant against Page, or if the FISC had rejected the application.” Footnote 7 in the memo reveals what is likely the list of Trump campaign officials who were, as of September 2016, under investigation by the FBI. mo makes clear that five members of the Trump campaign were under investigation by the FBI for being probable agents of the Russian government:
“FBI Dir just informed me, ‘The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.’ Case reopened” The Comey letter was released on Twitter 19 minutes later by Fox News analyst Brit Hume.
“It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government — a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity. The public has a right to know this information.”
Clearly, there was evidence in October 2016 that the Trump campaign needed to be investigated, and was in fact under investigation.
I have some questions: Why did the FBI tell the American people about the Clinton investigation, but not about the investigation into high-level Trump campaign officials? Why did the FBI find Clinton emails, which turned out to be copies of emails the FBI had already seen, end up on Anthony Weiner’s laptop? Why did Jason Chaffetz announce on Twitter that the investigation into Clinton was reopened? Where did Brit Hume get the letter to Congressional members? The minority memo from the House Intelligence Committee can be read here. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4387022/Democrats-memo-rebutting-Republican-claims-of.pdf The letter sent to Congressional committee heads announcing the reopening of the Clinton investigation can be seen here.  The New York Times article from October 31, 2016 can be found here. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html The Mother Jones article from the same day can be found here. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/veteran-spy-gave-fbi-info-alleging-russian-operation-cultivate-donald-trump/ The announcement of the FBI closing the Clinton investigation July 5, 2016 can be found here. https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system Note: Thanks to former CIA officer Ned Price for pointing out the information contained in Footnote 7.
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The Strange Case of #NeverHillary: Why Did Michael Flynn Push Russian Propaganda at the RNC?2/19/2018 OPINION  The Republican National Convention, held July 18 to 21, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio, was a spectacle. On display was over-the-top partisan behavior that was shocking in its brazenness and intensity. One thing stood out for me as I watched in horror 19 months ago: Michael Flynn, retired U.S. Army general criticized Hillary Clinton, suggested that she should resign from the campaign, accused her of unspecified crimes, and whipped the crowd into a frenzy chanting, “Lock Her Up.” That was all stunning to observe; the part that stood out for me, however, was this line: “I use hashtag Never Hillary,” Flynn, 58 years old at the time, said. Why would Trump supporters want to know what hashtag Flynn used? Why was Flynn using a hashtag? What did this mean? I know a lot more now than I knew at the time about how social media can be used to push propaganda. The indictment released Friday in the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the presidential campaign may provide an answer to the questions that have haunted me since that disturbing day in 2016. On page 20 of the indictment, a table provides information about political advertising bought by the defendants, Russian nationals, who used “fictitious U.S. personas created and used by the ORGANIZATION on social media.” (from page 19) An advertisement was purchased June 30, 2016, with this content: "#NeverHillary #HillaryforPrison #Hillary4Prison #HillaryforPrison2016 #Trump2016 #Trump #Trump4President” An ad was purchased by at least one persona account created in Saint Petersburg, and three weeks later Michael Flynn pushed the hashtag out at the Republican National Convention. Why might he have done this? At the time I heard him say it, I wondered how many Trump supporters were following Flynn on Twitter or Facebook. Maybe, I thought, the Trump campaign and the GOP had harnessed the power of social media and turned angry white voters in the Midwest and coal country into tech-savvy influencers. Somehow, that did not seem reasonable to me. (That is the story Brad Parscale and Jared Kushner, self-styled data geniuses of the Trump campaign, told to numerous reporters in the months after their team's surprise win.) There is another reason to signal the use of a hashtag from the podium of a worldwide-televised event. When Flynn announced that hashtag, he may have been signalling cells of paid troll warriors, in Russia, the U.S., and other places, to head to that hashtag to connect with newly created propaganda - memes, ads, and talking points - to push in the coming days and weeks. I did a search to see what kind of content was attached to this hashtag when Flynn promoted it at the RNC. Any content that has since been deleted would not show up in an advanced search, but the content I did find was very interesting. I cannot definitively say that all the content was created by paid professionals working on the Russian operation, but it looks like much of it may have been. It is important to note that the memes created were designed to appeal to potential voters who did not want to vote Clinton. The Russian information war was “primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.” (from page 17 of the indictment). Alternatives to Clinton - Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, and Gary Johnson -were pushed hard in July of 2016, using hashtags #BernieorBust, #DemExit, and #NeverTrump. The #GameofThrones hashtag is used, possibly to bring in people who were fans of the television show who might not otherwise be interested. One post uses the hashtag #Milo in combination with #NeverHillary. Another post links to Prison Planet, sending interested content-pushers to wingnut conspiracists Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, and InfoWars. This would help the paid trolls, Russian and American, find the content Flynn (or those directing him) wanted them to push. Did Michael Flynn knowingly push a hashtag created under fraudulent circumstances in a U.S. election, which would be a violation of federal election law? I don’t know, but I would bet that the special counsel’s team does. Flynn referring to the Russian-created hashtag occurs 56 seconds into this video from the Republican National Convention. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx94428MYcc A link to the 37-page indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies (with numerous shell companies created to hide fraudulent personas and ad buys) can be found here. https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download An article in USA Today from August 2016 highlighted some of the issues involved when retired military leaders speak out politically. In the article former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, a four-star Army general, explains that running for office, like Dwight Eisenhower did after a military career, is different from advocating for a particular side in a political contest: "'If they choose to run themselves, they become accountable to voters,' he wrote in Defense One, a website that focuses on defense and national security trends. 'In simply advocating — or giving speeches — they are not.'" Not accountable to American voters, but perhaps accountable to his handlers in the Kremlin? The USA Today article can be found here. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/08/04/retired-generals-partisan-politics/88009492/ Michael Flynn pleaded guilty on December 1, 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials. A detailed timeline of his actions related to his plea can be found here. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/12/01/michael-flynns-guilty-plea-a-comprehensive-timeline/?utm_term=.f172c076717b A selection of available content from Twitter using the hashtag #NeverHillary during the period of the Republican National Convention is included below.   Note the nonstandard plural spelling - "commys" instead of "commies" - that may be a sign of foreign-created content. Also, this may be an early use of the word "libtard." which was popular among harassing trolls during and after the campaign.  This meme accuses Clinton of wanting to build a wall. This may be an example of a paid content creator who got the messages mixed up.   #FreeMilo - perhaps mixing up Julian Assange, currently hiding out in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid charges, with Milo Yiannopoulos, alt-right provocateur?  Criticism of Clinton's hair has been a theme of critics since the 1990s.  The anti-fracking message is designed to appeal to left-leaning voters and encourage them to vote against Clinton. They would never be swayed to vote for Trump, but convincing people to vote for Sanders, Johnson, or Stein, or to simply stay home, became a very common theme by November.
 National Public Radio reported today: “A memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance authority became public on Friday after a push by House Republicans. President Trump authorized the memo's release, even after the FBI expressed "grave concerns" about the ‘accuracy’ of the document, authored by House intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif.” NPR release the text of the memo with annotations from their Justice Department, national security, and White House reporters. The annotated text can be found here. https://www.npr.org/2018/02/02/582828461/fact-check-read-the-gop-memo-released-by-house-intelligence-committee Some Republicans have argued that the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s ties to Russian government operatives is based solely on the so-called “Steele dossier,” a set of field documents created by Christopher Steele, retired head of the Russia desk in Great Britain’s intelligence service, MI6. According to an NPR story from today’s “All Things Considered” program, the memo undercuts that argument. “Instead, it says, overtures by Russian operatives to a junior campaign adviser are what sparked the FBI's counterintelligence investigation. George Papadopoulos — who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about those contacts — ‘triggered’ the opening of the investigation, the memo says.” Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October 2017 of lying to the FBI about his contacts with agents of the Russian government. The “All Things Considered” story can be found here. https://www.npr.org/2018/02/02/582713363/memo-russian-overtures-to-trump-aide-triggered-fbi-investigation While some GOP lawmakers have asserted that the FBI’s interest in Trump campaign aide Carter Page began with the Steele dossier, it is important to note the Page was a focus of FBI attention at least as far back as 2013, when Russian agents in the United States attempted to recruit him for their government. A federal Intelligence Surveillance Court granted the FBI a surveillance warrant on Page in October 2016. Three 90-day extensions were granted. Five senior Justice Department and FBI officials signed off on the three requests for extensions. The memo released today states that all the requests for extension were approved by a federal judge. This would not have occurred unless the warrant was yielding information useful to counterintelligence or a criminal investigation. A Washington Post article explains the issues surrounding the FBI surveillance of Carter Page. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/memo-points-to-fbis-ongoing-interest-in-trump-adviser-carter-page/2018/02/02/89bfdee2-077c-11e8-8777-2a059f168dd2_story.html?utm_term=.eeb1adfeedba Photo source: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
 "Hackers from the Dutch intelligence service AIVD have provided the FBI with crucial information about Russian interference with the American elections. For years, AIVD had access to the infamous Russian hacker group Cozy Bear. That's what de Volkskrant and Nieuwsuur have uncovered in their investigation." A Dutch newspaper and television station published an important article on January 25, 2018 that has gotten scant attention in the American press. Huib Modderkolk reports that in 2014, Dutch intelligence agents penetrated the Russian hacker group Cozy Bear, also known as APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) 29, even taking control of their closed circuit television camera. Dutch agents captured video showing who entered and left the building in Moscow out of which Cozy bear operates, allowing them to match images with photos of known Russian spies. "... they were in the computer network of the infamous Russian hacker group Cozy Bear. And unbeknownst to the Russians, they could see everything." This story is vitally important to American investigations into Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election, and possible coordination between agents of the Russian government and members of the Trump campaign team. However, American news outlets have not covered the story as the bombshell it is, spending their airtime and print space on other things. Lisa Negrijn has translated the Vokskrant article into English for the newspaper. That article can be found here. https://www.volkskrant.nl/tech/dutch-agencies-provide-crucial-intel-about-russia-s-interference-in-us-elections~a4561913/ Since U.S. media was slow to pick up the story, business analyst Eric Garland translated the story and provided his translation through Creative Commons license. His translation of the article can be found here.  There were three open Congressional hearings this week addressing Russian interference in U.S. social media. Google, Facebook, and Twitter sent lawyers to represent them. Congressional leaders expressed clear dissatisfaction with the lack of company Chief Executive Officers at the hearings, given the seriousness of the issue.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, at Wednesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, told the representatives that she doesn’t think they get it. She said she went home disappointed from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing the day before: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/extremist-content-and-russian-disinformation-online-working-with-tech-to-find-solutions While you might not ordinarily think Congressional hearings are riveting television, these three hearings present the information that shows how far the Russian information operation went in an effort to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. It is fascinating to see the scope of the effort to use divisive social issues to confuse, frighten and pit Americans against each other. Disinformation was used on both sides of social issues to create a wedge between fellow citizens. All voters should see what was done to us as a nation. The hearings are linked here. Tuesday, October 31: Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing “Extremist Content and Russian Disinformation Online: Working with Tech to Find Solutions” https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/extremist-content-and-russian-disinformation-online-working-with-tech-to-find-solutions Wednesday, November 1: Senate intelligence Committee Hearing “Social Media Influence in the 2016 U.S. Elections https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/hearings/open-hearing-social-media-influence-2016-us-elections House Intelligence Committee Hearing “Russia Investigative Task Force Open Hearing with Social Media Companies” Opening statements and prepared testimony can be found here. https://intelligence.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=814 The hearing can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=42c9oMBggIk The many exhibits used in the Senate Intelligence hearing can be accessed at the Senate committee website. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/hearings/open-hearing-social-media-influence-2016-us-elections An article from Wired summarizes the three hearings. https://www.wired.com/story/six-revealing-moments-from-the-second-day-of-russia-hearings/ An article from Engadget contains examples of some of the propaganda released by the Internet Research Agency. https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/01/house-intel-committee-releases-russia-backed-facebook-election-a/ The Hamilton 68 dashboard for tracking social media topics on Twitter, created by Securing Democracy and referenced in the hearings, can be found here. http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/ |
Truth is a real thing.
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