Donald Trump has consistently maligned the
investigation of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, using terms like witch
hunt, hoax, fake news, and phony scam. If you’ve followed the situation, you
know he hasn’t stopped there. Mr. Trump routinely leverages broadside assaults
against the FBI, and ignores the assessment of his own (as in he appointed
them) Intelligence Agency Directors. In the considered opinion of the
collective American Intel community, The Russians meddled in the 2016 Presidential
Election.
The very idea of this conclusion is akin to a
bur in Trump’s very ample saddle. By his way of thinking, the mere suggestion
that anything other than his personal brilliance, and stellar campaign tactics
were responsible, in any way, for his victory, is not just a rank
miscalculation, but also an affront to his refined sensibilities.
The Leader of the free world is so personally
absorbed with his perception of being ill-treated by the FBI, he asserted that
the Agency was responsible for the recent Florida school shooting because…they
were obsessed with Trump, rather than with conducting the appropriate follow-up
on Nikolas Cruz, the young man who killed 17 students and staff. Of course,
this completely ignores the fact that the FBI has 35,000 employees, and that
the criminal investigation in Florida is in no way connected with the political
meddling case.
Add to all this the fact that Trump refuses to
take Vladimir Putin and Russia to task for their actions; not even by executing
Sanctions approved by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 98-2. So does that mean the
President of the United States has more faith, trust, and confidence in Putin
than in his own FBI? You be the judge.
Last Friday, Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein held
a news conference at which he detailed charges related to indictments against
13 Russian Nationals and three Russian entities for trying to influence the
2016 Presidential Election in the United States…in favor of Donald Trump. Boom!
As they say in the MiO commercial, “This changes everything.”
A summary of the 37-page indictment, as
detailed by Bloomberg, includes several key elements:
Twelve
of the Russians worked in various capacities to carry out election and
political interference operations targeting the U.S. -- "by impairing,
obstructing and defeating the lawful function of the government through fraud
and deceit."
The
campaign started in 2014, ran through the presidential election of 2016, and
continued after that.
"Some
defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian
association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump
campaign and with other political activists."
An
American with a Texas-based grass-roots organization suggested to the Russians
that they should focus their activities on "purple states like Colorado,
Virginia and Florida.” After the exchange, the Russians commonly referred to
targeting those states.
Their financing was provided by the 13th defendant, Yevgeniy
Viktorovich Prigozhin and companies which he allegedly controlled.
Mueller Accuses Russians of Pro-Trump, Anti-Clinton Meddling
Mueller Accuses Russians of Pro-Trump, Anti-Clinton Meddling
The
Russians posed as Americans, created fake personas, and ran social media pages
and groups designed to attract U.S. audiences, including on YouTube, Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter. They also used stolen identities of real Americans to
post on those accounts.
The
goal was "to sow discord in the U.S. political system," including the
presidential election, by supporting the Trump campaign and disparaging his
Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, with ads and rallies.
They’re
charged with failing to disclose those expenditures, failing to register as
foreign agents and obtaining visas through false and fraudulent statements.
The program was run from St. Petersburg,
Russia.
It employed hundreds of individuals for its
online operations
The
organization, with an annual budget equivalent to millions of U.S. dollars,
aimed to carry out "information warfare" against the U.S.
From Introduction to
Substitute Assets, Mueller’s Indictment covers 99 individually enumerated
topics, several of which also included alpha-based subdivisions. To give you an
idea of the depth of the strategies and tactics the Russians employed, I pulled
items 43-46 for your edification. These elements focus on the Russian
operatives communicating derogatory information about Trump’s GOP Primary
opponents, and Hillary Clinton, and communicating information in support of
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. During the General Election, they produced and
distributed an array of pro-Trump and anti-Clinton election materials,
maintained corresponding social media accounts, and undertook a variety of
efforts to suppress minority voting.
43. By 2016, Defendants and their
co-conspirators used their fictitious online personas to interfere with the
2016 U.S. presidential election. They engaged in operations 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. 43. By 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators
used their fictitious online personas to interfere with the 2016 U.S.
presidential election. They engaged in operations 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.
44. Certain ORGANIZATION-produced
materials about the 2016 U.S. presidential election used election-related
hashtags, including: "#Trump2016," "#TrumpTrain,"
"#MAGA," "#IWontProtectHillary," and
"#Hillary4Prison." Defendants and their co-conspirators also
established additional online social media accounts dedicated to the 2016 U.S.
presidential election, including the Twitter account "March for
Trump" and Facebook accounts "Clinton FRAUDation" and
"Trumpsters United.''
45. Defendants and their
co-conspirators also used false U.S. personas to communicate with unwitting
members, volunteers, and supporters of the Trump Campaign involved in local
community outreach, as well as grassroots groups that supported then-candidate
Trump. These individuals and entities at times distributed the ORGANIZATION's
materials through their own accounts via retweets, reposts, and similar means.
Defendants and their co-conspirators then monitored the propagation of content
through such participants.
46. In or around the latter half of
2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators, through their
ORGANIZATION-controlled personas, began to encourage U.S. minority groups not
to vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election or to vote for a third-party
U.S. presidential candidate.
a. On or about October 16, 2016, Defendants and
their co-conspirators used the ORGANIZATION-controlled Instagram account
"Woke Blacks" to post the following message: "[A] particular
hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote
Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we'd surely be
better off without voting AT ALL."
b. On or about November 3, 2016, Defendants and
their co-conspirators purchased an advertisement to promote a post on the
ORGANIZATION-controlled Instagram account "Blacktivist" that read in
part: "Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it's not a wasted vote."
c. By in or around early November
2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the ORGANIZATION-controlled
"United Muslims of America" social media accounts to post anti-vote
messages such as: "American Muslims [are] boycotting elections today, most
of the American Muslim voters refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton because she
wants to continue the war on Muslims in the middle east and voted yes for
invading Iraq."
Considering there was 95 other numbered items in the indictment, you can
imagine the degree of specificity and depth involved in Friday’s Mueller
indictment. There is really only one point I wish to underscore with this post.
The charade is over. “Witch Hunt. Hoax. Fake News. Phony Scam. #NotAnyMore!”
I'm Done; holla back!
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