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Official Russian Election Interference Thread

Reddit: Evidence shows suspected Russian role in disinformation campaign ahead of U.K. election


The social media company Reddit said Friday that it has detected a suspected Russian disinformation campaign on the site intended to spread classified British documents ahead of next week's U.K. election.

A social media analytics firm also suggested in a report this week that Russian tactics played some role in the leak of the documents last month, which caused a commotion as they detailed U.S. and British discussions leading up to Brexit. The leak also showed that U.S. officials wanted the vaunted public National Health Service to be “on the table” in any post-Brexit talks — a claim that bolstered an attack line by the opposition Labor Party and fed allegations that the ruling Conservatives were putting the system up for sale.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/06/reddit-russia-disinformation-uk-election-077604
 
Senate panel backs assessment that Russia interfered in 2016


WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday confirms the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to sow chaos. Senators warned that it could happen again this presidential election year.

The heavily redacted report from the Senate Intelligence Committee is part of the panel’s more than three-year investigation into the Russian interference. The intelligence agencies concluded in January 2017 that Russians had engaged in cyber-espionage and distributed messages through Russian-controlled propaganda outlets to undermine public faith in the democratic process, hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump.

President Trump has repeatedly questioned the assessment, which was also confirmed by former special counsel Robert Mueller in his report last year. Mueller concluded that Russian interference was “sweeping and systematic,” but he did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said in a statement that his panel “found no reason to dispute” the intelligence community’s conclusions, saying they reflected strong tradecraft and analytical reasoning. He said the agencies’ conclusion that such election interference is “the new normal” has been borne out in the three years since it was published.

“With the 2020 presidential election approaching, it’s more important than ever that we remain vigilant against the threat of interference from hostile foreign actors,” Burr said.

The Senate report endorsed the core conclusions of the intelligence community assessment that Russia had interfered on a grand scale in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed the interference. “The Committee found that specific intelligence as well as open source assessments support the assessment that President Putin approved and directed aspects of this influence campaign,” the Senate report states.

The panel also said it found that the intelligence community had presented sufficient information to support its conclusion that Russia had developed a preference for Trump over Clinton in the election.


The Senate report includes a two-page statement from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, who says the committee’s work makes clear that the intelligence community’s findings on Russian interference are “not a ‘hoax’” just because Putin denies it.

“Russian interference in the 2016 election is a fact, and Donald Trump’s deference to Putin only serves to further Russian disinformation and undermine efforts to defend the United States against ongoing attacks,” Wyden wrote.

The final report comes almost two years after the panel first released its findings agreeing with the intelligence community’s 2017 conclusions. The report was delayed as intelligence agencies reviewed it for declassification, and much of the report remains redacted. To write the report, the committee reviewed thousands of pages of documents and conducted interviews with intelligence officials.

This is the fourth of five reports the Senate panel will release on the meddling. Previous reports reviewed Russian efforts to breach state election systems and manipulate social media, and made recommendations to prevent more interference in the future. Another examined the mistakes of former President Barack Obama’s administration as Russia interfered.

The committee’s fifth, and final, report will examine counterintelligence findings, including whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia. It’s unclear when that will be released.

https://apnews.com/d094918c0421b872eac7dc4b16e613c7
 
Nothing burger:

 
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released the fifth and final volume of its report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which details "counterintelligence threats and vulnerabilities."

Why it matters: The bipartisan, 996-page report goes further than the Mueller report in showing the extent of Russia's connections to members of the Trump campaign, and how the Kremlin was able to take advantage of the transition team's inexperience to gain access to sensitive information.

Highlights

Paul Manafort: The report found that the former Trump campaign chairman began working on influence operations for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and other pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs in 2004.

Manafort hired and worked closely with Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the committee definitively calls a "Russian intelligence officer" that served as a liaison between him and Deripaska.
On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to pass sensitive internal polling data and campaign strategy to Kilimnik. The committee was unable to determine why or what Kilimnik did with that information, in part due to the pair's use of encrypted messaging apps.

The committee did, however, obtain "some information" suggesting Kilimnik "may have been connected" to Russia's hacking and leaking of Democratic emails. The section detailing these findings is largely redacted.
The bottom line: "Taken as a whole, Manafort's high level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat," the committee wrote.

Roger Stone/WikiLeaks: The committee found that then-candidate Trump and senior campaign officials attempted to obtain advance information about WikiLeaks' release of damaging emails from Roger Stone, who they believed had inside information.

It also assessed that Trump spoke with Stone about WikiLeaks on "multiple occasions," despite the fact that the president said he did not recall doing so in written answers to special counsel Robert Mueller.
In July 2016, Stone drafted tweets for Trump — at his request — that "attacked Clinton for her adversarial posture toward Russia and mentioned a new peace deal with Putin."
2016 Trump Tower meeting: The committee found that Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive "derogatory information" that would benefit the campaign from a person he knew was connected to the Russian government, but that no information was ultimately transmitted.

Two participants at the meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, had far more "extensive and concerning" ties to the the Russian government, including to Russian intelligence, than publicly known.
Michael Cohen/Russia business deal: The report found that by the end of 2015, Trump’s former personal lawyer had “reached out to the Kremlin directly to solicit the Russian government's assistance” about building a Trump Tower in Moscow.

“Cohen kept Trump updated on the progress of the deal. While these negotiations were ongoing, Trump made positive public comments about Putin in connection with his presidential campaign.” The report found Cohen and Felix Sater, a longtime business associate of Trump, “sought to leverage Trump's comments, and subsequent comments about Trump by Putin, to advance the deal.”

Cohen made contact in January 2016 with a Russian aide to Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskov and reported to Trump that he had done so. Attempts to advance the deal stopped in the summer of 2016.
Trump transition: Russia "took advantage" of members of the Trump transition team’s "relative inexperience in government, opposition to Obama administration policies, and Trump’s desire to deepen ties with Russia to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy," the committee determined.

The transition team "repeatedly took actions that had the potential, and sometimes the effect," of interfering with the Obama administration's diplomatic efforts, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn's conversations with the former Russian ambassador.

FBI investigation: The report concluded that "certain FBI procedures and actions in response to the Russian threat to the 2016 elections were flawed," specifically with respect to the bureau's interactions with the DNC about the email hacks and its treatment of the Steele Dossier.

Methodology: Together, the five volumes of the report represent "three years of investigative activity, hundreds of witness interviews and engagements, millions of pages of document review, and open and closed hearings."

The committee conducted "follow-up interviews" with Michael Cohen, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., John Podesta, and State Department official Jonathan Winer — which were necessary after the committee "developed additional information since the initial interview that required clarification from the witnesses."
What they're saying:

Senate Intelligence acting chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): “We can say, without any hesitation, that the Committee found absolutely no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to meddle in the 2016 election. ...

Senate Intelligence ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.): “At nearly 1,000 pages, Volume 5 stands as the most comprehensive examination of ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign to date – a breathtaking level of contacts between Trump officials and Russian government operatives that is a very real counterintelligence threat to our elections. ... This cannot happen again."

https://www.axios.com/senate-intell...nce-971619a8-a806-470a-9de6-1416220ab35b.html
 
It's going to happen again. Russia wants Trump, China wants Biden. China is far less brazen in their attempts to interfere.
 
Not "going to." It is currently happening and will ramp up. col anus hates America and loves trump so he's happy.
 
Intel chief cancels future election security briefings for Congress

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has canceled future in-person briefings on election security issues to the congressional intelligence committees and will only provide written updates, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced in a statement on Saturday.

Why it matters: The National Counterintelligence and Security Center said in early August that the Russian government is actively "using a range of measures" to "denigrate former Vice President Biden" before the November election.

The center's director, William Evanina, added that Kremlin-linked actors are trying to support President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television, while others are spreading false claims about corruption to undermine Biden and the Democratic Party.
The counterintelligence chief in July warned that China, Russia and Iran all pose threats for election interference in the 2020 presidential race.
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center is part of ODNI.
What they're saying: 'This is a shocking abdication of [ODNI's] lawful responsibility to keep the Congress currently informed, and a betrayal of the public’s right to know how foreign powers are trying to subvert our democracy," Pelosi and Schiff said.

"This intelligence belongs to the American people, not the agencies which are its custodian. And the American people have both the right and the need to know that another nation, Russia, is trying to help decide who their president should be."
Biden accused Trump of hoping Russian President Vladimir Putin "will once more boost his candidacy."
"This is not how democracy works," Biden said. "But it is how American national security and sovereignty are violated."
Acting Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said, "Congressional oversight of intelligence activities now faces a historic crisis," criticizing both Ratcliffe's decision and alleged leaks by Democrats that put the intelligence community in this situation.
The other side: Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe "is committed to meeting our statutory responsibilities and keeping Congress fully and currently informed," an ODNI spokesman, Matthew Lahr, said in an email.

"For clarity and to protect sensitive intelligence from unauthorized disclosures, we will primarily do that through written finished intelligence products. We are concerned with unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information following recent briefings," Lahr said.
Of note: Counterintelligence director Evanina made a commitment in July to provide "robust intelligence-based briefings on election security" to Congress, political parties and presidential campaigns.

The cancelation does not apply to the so-called Gang of Eight, the group of congressional leaders who receive sensitive classified briefings, according to Politico.
The White House has not responded to a request for comment.

https://www.axios.com/odni-cancels-...ess-00b1ac4b-cf41-4f34-9457-8e58363d4237.html


Corrupt. As. Fuck.
 
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