The announcement that Robert
Mueller obtained the indictment of 13 Russian nationals—including Vladimir
Putin’s “chef”—means that the investigation into Russian tampering in
the 2016 election has entered a dangerous new phase, not just for Donald Trump,
but the country as a whole. Dangerous for Trump because the Mueller
investigation now only has to look for persons involved in the Trump campaign
who have any connections with the indicted persons to prove collusion—and
dangerous to this country, because the indictment demonstrates how easy it was
for the Russians to undermine the integrity of the electoral process—no doubt with
tactics learned from Putin’s own efforts to undermine the democratic process in
Russia.
Unknown to most in this country,
Trump has “suspended” recently passed sanctions against Russia by Congress in
regard to Russian interference in the election; will any pressure on Trump to invoke
the sanctions lead to more of his “fake news” bluster? Some might call it more
evidence of a conspiracy to obstruct justice by Trump and his administration.
Remember that Trump learned from attorney Roy Cohn—the notorious “right-hand
man” of Joe McCarthy in destroying hundreds of innocent lives—that lying and
denying loudly while crafting a knowingly false narrative is the “best
defense.” In private, only a limited number people may be affected, but as the
President of the United States, this is poisonous to the body politic.
Unlike most people I have taken
the time to read the 37-page indictment against the Russian conspirators. A key
figure here is Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, the oligarch who besides half-jokingly tasked to
serve Putin’s “palate,” also seems to serve his appetite for international machination.
Those who claim that no Russian government official is named in the indictment means no Russian government involvement can liken themselves to Nazi high officials who claimed to know nothing of the Holocaust. Here are excerpts from the first count of the indictment:
Defendant: INTERNET RESEARCH
AGENCY LLC (“ORGANIZATION”) is
a Russian organization
engaged in operations
to interfere with
elections and political
processes. Defendants MIKHAIL IVANOVICH
BYSTROV, MIKHAIL LEONIDOVICH
BURCHIK, ALEKSANDRA YURYEVNA KRYLOVA,
ANNA VLADISLAVOVNA BOGACHEVA,
SERGEY PAVLOVICH POLOZOV, MARIA
ANATOLYEVNA BOVDA, ROBERT
SERGEYEVICH BOVDA, DZHEYKHUN NASIMI
OGLY ASLANOV, VADIM
VLADIMIROVICH PODKOPAEV, GLEB IGOREVICH VASILCHENKO,
IRINA VIKTOROVNA KAVERZINA,
and VLADIMIR VENKOV worked
in various capacities
to carry out
Defendant ORGANIZATION’s interference operations targeting
the United States.
From in or
around 2014 to
the present, Defendants knowingly and
intentionally conspired with
each other (and
with persons known
and unknown to the Grand Jury) to defraud the United
States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the government
through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political
and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016.
Beginning as early as 2014, Defendant ORGANIZATION began operations to
interfere with the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential
election. Defendant ORGANIZATION received funding for its operations from
Defendant YEVGENIY VIKTOROVICH PRIGOZHIN and companies he controlled, including
Defendants CONCORD MANAGEMENT AND CONSULTING LLC and CONCORD CATERING
(collectively “CONCORD”). Defendants CONCORD and PRIGOZHIN spent significant
funds to further the ORGANIZATION’s operations and to pay the remaining
Defendants, along with other uncharged ORGANIZATION employees, salaries and
bonuses for their work at the ORGANIZATION. Defendants, posing as U.S. persons
and creating false U.S. personas, operated social media pages and groups
designed to attract U.S. audiences. These groups and pages, which addressed divisive
U.S. political and social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S.
activists when, in fact, they were controlled by Defendants. Defendants also
used the stolen identities of real U.S. persons to post on
ORGANIZATION-controlled social media accounts. Over time, these social media
accounts became Defendants’ means to reach significant numbers of Americans for
purposes of interfering with the U.S. political system, including the presidential
election of 2016.
Certain Defendants traveled to the United States under false pretenses
for the purpose of collecting intelligence to inform Defendants’ operations.
Defendants also procured and used computer infrastructure, based partly in the
United States, to hide the Russian origin of their activities and to avoid
detection by U.S. regulators and law enforcement. Defendant ORGANIZATION had a
strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016
U.S. presidential election. Defendants posted derogatory information about a
number of candidates, and by early to mid-2016, Defendants’ operations included
supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (“Trump
Campaign”) and disparaging Hillary Clinton. Defendants made various
expenditures to carry out those activities, including buying political
advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities.
Defendants also staged political rallies inside the United States, and while
posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing
their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and
compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates. 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 to seek to coordinate political activities.
In order to carry out their activities to interfere in U.S. political
and electoral processes without detection of their Russian affiliation,
Defendants conspired to obstruct the lawful functions of the United States
government through fraud and deceit, including by making expenditures in connection
with the 2016 U.S. presidential election without proper regulatory disclosure;
failing to register as foreign agents carrying out political activities within
the United States; and obtaining visas through
false and fraudulent statements. From in or around 2014 to the present, in the
District of Columbia and elsewhere, Defendants,
together with others
known and unknown
to the Grand
Jury, knowingly and intentionally conspired
to defraud the
United States by
impairing, obstructing, and
defeating the lawful
functions of the
Federal Election Commission,
the U.S. Department
of Justice, and
the U.S. Department of
State in administering
federal requirements for
disclosure of foreign
involvement in certain domestic
activities.
The indictment goes on reveal
many specific examples of the content of this activity. For instance, it
revealed that the Russians sought to aid the Trump campaign not just by direct
support, but creating fictitious far-left or minority “organizations” meant to alienate
or frighten white voters:
ORGANIZATION employees, referred to as “specialists,” were tasked to
create social media accounts that appeared to be operated by U.S. persons. The
specialists were divided into day-shift and night-shift hours and instructed to
make posts in accordance with the appropriate U.S. time zone. The ORGANIZATION
also circulated lists of U.S. holidays so that specialists could develop and
post appropriate account activity. Specialists were instructed to write about topics
germane to the United States such as U.S. foreign policy and U.S. economic
issues. Specialists were directed to create “political intensity through supporting
radical groups, users dissatisfied with [the] social and economic situation and
oppositional social movements.”
Defendants and their co-conspirators also created thematic group pages
on social media sites, particularly on the social media platforms Facebook and
Instagram. ORGANIZATION controlled pages addressed a range of issues,
including: immigration (with group names including “Secured Borders”); the
Black Lives Matter movement (with group names including “Blacktivist”);
religion (with group names including “United Muslims of America” and “Army of Jesus”);
and certain geographic regions within the United States (with group names
including “South United” and “Heart of Texas”). By 2016, the size of many
ORGANIZATION-controlled groups had grown to hundreds of thousands of online
followers.
The indictment shows that the
Russians hid their identities and agenda by constantly reviewing and revamping
content, and their social media activities were quite successful in reaching a
large number of people:
Defendants and their co-conspirators also created and controlled
numerous Twitter accounts designed to appear as if U.S. persons or groups controlled
them. For example, the ORGANIZATION created and controlled the Twitter account
“Tennessee GOP,” which used the handle @TEN_GOP. The @TEN_GOP account falsely
claimed to be controlled by a U.S. state political party. Over time, the
@TEN_GOP account attracted more than 100,000 online followers. To measure the
impact of their online social media operations, Defendants and their coconspirators
tracked the performance of content they posted over social media. They tracked
the size of the online U.S. audiences reached through posts, different types of
engagement with the posts (such as likes, comments, and reposts), changes in
audience size, and other metrics. Defendants and their co-conspirators received
and maintained metrics reports on certain group pages and individualized posts.
Defendants and their co-conspirators also regularly evaluated the
content posted by specialists (sometimes referred to as “content analysis”) to
ensure they appeared authentic—as if operated by U.S. persons. Specialists
received feedback and directions to improve the quality of their posts.
Defendants and their co-conspirators issued or received guidance on: ratios of
text, graphics, and video to use in posts; the number of accounts to operate;
and the role of each account (for example, differentiating a main account from
which to post information and auxiliary accounts to promote a main account
through links and reposts).
The indictment shows that in 2014
the Russians were already in the planning phase to discredit a potential
Clinton campaign (as if she hadn't already done enough of that on her own). Because of their antipathy toward Clinton, the Russians did not seek to harm the Sanders' campaign; this does not so much discredit Sanders, but is another reason why so many of us were angry that the media and the Democratic establishment was foisting on voters such an unpopular and unethical candidate who was highly vulnerable to negative imagery. It was also charged that when the candidate most perceived as Russia’s
“friend,” Trump, became “viable” during the primaries, the conspirators engaged in
activities meant to discredit his Republican rivals:
By approximately May 2014, Defendants and their co-conspirators
discussed efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Defendants and their co-conspirators began to monitor U.S. social media
accounts and other sources of information about the 2016 U.S. presidential
election. 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.
On or about February 10, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators
internally circulated an outline of themes for future content to be posted to ORGANIZATION-controlled
social media accounts. Specialists were instructed to post content that focused
on “politics in the USA” and to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and
the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them).” On or about September 14,
2016, in an internal review of an ORGANIZATION created and controlled Facebook
group called “Secured Borders,” the account specialist was criticized for
having a “low number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton” and was
told “it is imperative to intensify criticizing Hillary Clinton” in future
posts.
The indictment showed that the
Russians paid for and promoted under false pretenses and illegally in
contravention of the foreign agent statute numerous advertisements and campaign
rallies, either in support of Trump, or to alienate voters against Clinton:
To pay for the political advertisements, Defendants and their
co-conspirators established various Russian bank accounts and credit cards,
often registered in the names of fictitious U.S. personas created and used by
the ORGANIZATION on social media. Defendants and their coconspirators also paid
for other political advertisements using PayPal accounts. The political
advertisements included the following:
April 6, 2016 “You know, a great number of black people support us
saying that #HillaryClintonIsNotMyPresident” April 7, 2016 “I say no to Hillary
Clinton / I say no to manipulation” April 19, 2016 “JOIN our
#HillaryClintonForPrison2016” May 10, 2016 “Donald wants to defeat terrorism .
. . Hillary wants to sponsor it” May 19, 2016 “Vote Republican, vote Trump, and
support the Second Amendment!” May 24, 2016 “Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve
the Black Vote” June 7, 2016 “Trump is our only hope for a better future!” June
30, 2016 “#NeverHillary #HillaryForPrison #Hillary4Prison #HillaryForPrison2016
#Trump2016 #Trump #Trump4President” July 20, 2016 “Ohio Wants Hillary 4 Prison”
August 4, 2016 “Hillary Clinton has already committed voter fraud during the
Democrat Iowa Caucus.” August 10, 2016 “We cannot trust Hillary to take care of
our veterans!” October 14, 2016 “Among all the candidates Donald Trump is the
one and only who can defend the police from terrorists.” October 19, 2016
“Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is.”
Starting in approximately June 2016, Defendants and their
co-conspirators organized and coordinated political rallies in the United
States. To conceal the fact that they were based in Russia, Defendants and
their co-conspirators promoted these rallies while pretending to be U.S.
grassroots activists who were located in the United States but unable to meet
or participate in person. Defendants and their co-conspirators did not register
as foreign agents with the U.S. Department of Justice. In order to build
attendance for the rallies, Defendants and their co-conspirators promoted the
events through public posts on their false U.S. persona social media accounts.
In addition, Defendants and their co-conspirators contacted administrators of
large social media groups focused on U.S. politics and requested that they
advertise the rallies.
The indictment shows that the
Russians attempted to destroy the evidence of their activities following the Facebook
revelations:
Media reporting on
or about the
same day as
Facebook’s disclosure referred
to Facebook working with
investigators for the
Special Counsel’s Office
of the U.S. Department of
Justice, which had
been charged with
investigating the Russian government’s efforts
to interfere in the 2016
presidential election. Defendants
and their co-conspirators thereafter
destroyed evidence for
the purpose of impeding
the investigation. On or
about September 13,
2017, KAVERZINA wrote in
an email to
a family member:
“We had a
slight crisis here at work:
the FBI busted our activity (not
a joke). So, I
got preoccupied with
covering tracks together with
the colleagues.” KAVERZINA
further wrote, “I
created all these pictures and
posts, and the
Americans believed that
it was written
by their people.”
The second count of the
indictment shows just how useless security programs like Life Lock are when it
comes to “protection” against identity theft “pros”:
From in or around 2016 through present, in the District of Columbia and
elsewhere, Defendants INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY LLC, DZHEYKHUN NASIMI OGLY
ASLANOV, and GLEB IGOREVICH VASILCHENKO, together with others known and unknown
to the Grand Jury, knowingly and intentionally conspired to commit certain
offenses against the United States, to wit: to knowingly, having devised and
intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud, and to obtain money and
property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, transmit
and cause to be transmitted,
by means of wire
communications in interstate
and foreign commerce,
writings, signs, signals, pictures,
and sounds, for
the purposes of
executing such scheme
and artifice, in violation
of Title 18,
United States Code,
Section 1343; and to
knowingly execute and
attempt to execute
a scheme and
artifice to defraud
a federally insured financial
institution, and to
obtain monies, funds,
credits, assets, securities and
other property from
said financial institution
by means of
false and fraudulent pretenses,
representations, and promises,
all in violation
of Title 18,
The conspiracy
had as its
object the opening
of accounts under
false names at
U.S. financial institutions
and a digital
payments company in
order to receive
and send money
into and out of
the United States
to support the
ORGANIZATION’s operations in the
United
States and for self-enrichment.
Beginning in at
least 2016, Defendants
and their co-conspirators used,
without lawful authority,
the social security
numbers, home addresses,
and birth dates
of real U.S.
persons without their
knowledge or consent.
Using these means
of stolen identification, Defendants
and their coconspirators opened
accounts at a
federally insured U.S.
financial institution.
And there’s more, a lot more.
Trump’s election voter “fraud” committee might be dead and buried, but thanks
in part to his insistence that this is all “fake news” and a “witch hunt”
against him, many states are not even acknowledging the possibility of Russian
undermining of the election process or protecting voting systems from tampering.
For those who are concerned about this, it should be clear now that the Kremlin
was directly involved in instigating and overseeing these activities, and even in being caught, as Julian Sanchez wrote in The New York Times, it served the purpose of undermining in Americans' minds confidence in their own democratic process. Anyone
who believes Putin’s denials is either a fool, unpatriotic or stands just this
side of treason; you tell me which one (or all) best describes Trump.
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