Russian accusations of piracy updated cold, hard facts in the middle of theatricality



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In the old television series "Perry Mason", popular when Donald Trump was a teenager, the honest defense lawyer often exonerated his client by skillfully interrogating a witness that the real criminal broke down and confessed.

Addressing reporters in Britain on Friday morning, Trump warned that he was not expecting such a time when he would talk with the president Russian Vladimir Putin's interference in the elections of 2016 early next week.

"I do not think so, I've done it, I've done it, you've got me," Trump said. "There will be no Perry Mason here, I do not think so, but you never know what's going on, is not it?"

A little over two hours later , Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein A different version of American justice, which downplays dramatic theatrical dramas in favor of cold, hard facts.

In a press conference at the Ministry of Justice, Agency No. 2 unveiled several accusations against a dozen Russian intelligence officials. In total, Friday's announcement has brought the head of Special Adviser Robert Mueller's team to 191 criminal charges against 32 people and three Russian companies, including former Trump campaign leader Paul Manafort. ; The assistant of Manafort, Rick Gates; his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn; a foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos; and 25 Russian nationals. (In an investigation delegated at least in part by Mueller's office to federal prosecutors in New York, FBI agents also attacked the offices of Trump's longtime prosecutor, Michael Cohen, who has never been charged with .)

They also painted a portrait of a sophisticated operation aimed at disrupting the election in favor of Trump, but amateurish enough so that hackers are not quite sure of the value of what's going on. they had discovered or when they would let go

= "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = " Read more: Transcript of Rod Rosenstein's Remarks on Russian Piracy "data-reactid =" 22 "> Read more: Transcript of remarks by Rod Rosenstein on Russian Piracy

According to Mueller and Rosenstein's accusations, agents working for Special units of the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, began looking for ways to Ack the e-mail accounts of volunteers and employees of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in March 2016. A month later, they started a similar effort to hack the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee

. used was to send emails that appeared to come from Democratic campaigners and included fake links to things like an excel spreadsheet on Clinton's favorability ratings, Ministry of Justice documents charge. Instead, as the department points out, the links would install software that would allow them to monitor personal computers and email accounts, download key files and send them back to Russia. 1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "type =" text "content =" The Russians then created fake online characters, including DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, to route stolen information to websites – including an unnamed in the documents, but that matches the known activities of WikiLeaks – where it could be published for maximum effect, the fees say. "data-reactid =" 25 "> The Russians then created fake online characters, including DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, to route the stolen information to websites – one of which was not named in the documents but corresponding to the activities Known to WikiLeaks – In the case of a series of charges last February, Rosenstein took care to clarify what the charges do not say – most importantly, it's that n & rsquo; Any American knowingly worked with Russians on this spying.In fact, the accusations clearly show that the Russians often used American computers paid with $ 95,000 crypto-currencies like Bitcoin to conceal their identities and lied about who they were in correspondence with the people they were working with

There is no allegation in this indictment that a US citizen has committed a crime ", declared Rosenstein. "There is no allegation that the conspiracy changed the count of votes or changed the outcome of an election."

The White House quickly emphasized this line in its response to the latest accusations

"Today's accusations do not include any," White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said. "This is consistent with what we have always said."

Trump, who was having tea with Queen Elizabeth during a working visit to England as Rosenstein spoke, did not respond personally to the charges Friday, but the deputy general prosecutor said that the president was informed about them earlier in the week.In his latest tweets about the Russian investigation, Trump attacked the FBI agent Peter Strzok and Lisa Page agency attorney, who was the subject of a report by the Inspector General criticizing them for being sent texts criticizing Trump during the year. As he has done so many times in the past, Trump has called Mueller probe of "faked witch hunt" led by skewed partisans

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0 em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "type =" text "content =" Read more: The 195 arguments Donald Trump did against the probe of Russia "data-reactid =" 34 "> Read more : The 195 arguments Donald Trump did against Russia Probe

For Democrats on Capitol Hill, the latest accusations were more than enough to convince them that the drastic action

The Democratic Senator of the Senate, Mark Warner told reporters on Friday afternoon that he was "surprised" by the depth of the charges, which he described as "direct evidence".

"My hope would be for the president and his allies to stop and stop calling the Mueller to invest. a witch hunt, "he said. He called on Trump to cancel his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki next week. "I am worried that the president may approach this issue at random and face a denial of Putin," he said.

He echoed the leader of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, of New York. proof that everyone, except the president, seems to understand: President Putin is an opponent who has interfered in our elections to help President Trump win. "

" President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin that they will not intervene in future elections, Schumer said. "Happy to pass Vladimir Putin as a result of these indictments would be an insult to our democracy."

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona also called on Trump to cancel the meeting with Putin on Friday.

President Trump is not ready to hold Putin to account, the Helsinki summit should not go ahead, "he said.

By re-evaluating the Rosenstein warned Americans not to read them too much, 19659029] "I want to warn you that people who speculate about federal investigations do not generally know all the relevant facts," he said before making a reference. evident at this week's controversial Congressional hearings with Strzok. "We do not try cases on television or in Congressional hearings. Most anonymous leaks do not come from government officials who actually conduct these investigations.

Yet, the documents provided tantalizing clues about the individuals and organizations who might have been involved in the effort that were promptly seized by

The charges alleged that on August 15, 2016, the Russians wrote to a "person who was in regular contact with senior members" of the Trump campaign asking for stolen documents just online, "thank you for writing" Although unnamed, the account matches conversations that Trump's longtime confidante, Roger Stone, admitted to having had with Guccifer 2.0 at that time, which he said were "superficial, brief and banal."

At another time, the documents accuse the Russians of Have attempted to "spear" the email accounts of a third-party vendor and use them in Clinton's personal files. ffice for the first time on July 27, 2016 – the same day as Trump said in response to questions about the Democratic National Committee that he hoped the Russians had Clinton's emails and encouraged them to publish them.

"By listening, I hope you will be able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump told a press conference in Florida that day, referring to the controversy over his private mail server. "I think you will probably be rewarded with power by our press."

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "The documents also note that Russian agents have sent 2.5 gigabytes of data stolen from the DNC to a "state lobbyist then registered and an online source of new policies", which is also anonymous, although the details correspond to Wall Street Journal on Florida Republican Agent Aaron Nevins, that they sent stolen documents on Black Lives Matter to an anonymous reporter, and that an anonymous congressional candidate contacted Guccifer 2.0 on 15 August 2016, looking for stolen documents related to their opponent, which were then sent. "data-reactid =" 48 "> The documents also note that Russian agents sent 2.5 gigabytes of stolen data to the DNC at a "registered state lobbyist and source of online political information", who are Also not anonymous, although the details match a story of Wall Street Journal on Florida Republican Agent Aaron Nevins; that they sent stolen documents on Black Lives Matter to an anonymous reporter; and an unnamed congressional candidate contacted Guccifer 2.0 on August 15, 2016, looking for stolen documents about their opponent, which were then sent.

In a Facebook update released on Friday afternoon, Brad Ashford of Nebraska, who was the only Democratic candidate to lose in 2016, seemed to be referring to the accusations.

"With indictments today, I can reveal that my campaign emails were hacked by Russian agents in 2016," he writes enigmatically. The Russians also hacked an unidentified election board website and stole names, addresses, partial social security numbers, birth dates and driver's license numbers from about 500,000 documents. the electors; hacked a provider used to check the voter registration information; and targeted websites and emails from electoral councils in Georgia, Iowa and Florida.

The charges were laid one day after the House Democrats released a report – which no Republican has co-signed – identifying 18 states that lack key voting guarantees such as paper. At the end of the speech on Friday, Rosenstein noted that he had not talked about Clinton or the Democrats at the press conference, saying instead that American democracy itself was the victim.

"In my remarks, I did not identify the victims," ​​he said. "When we are confronted with foreign interference in US elections, it is important for us to avoid thinking politically as Republicans or Democrats and to think patriotically as Americans." Our response must not depend on which side has been victimized. "

" We must work together to hold perpetrators accountable, and we must continue to move forward to preserve our values, protect against future interference and defend America ".

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mo (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = " With reports of Abby Vesoulis and Abigail Simon in Washington and Tessa Berenson in Ellesborough, England "data-reactid =" 56 "> With reports of Abby Vesoulis and Abigail Simon in Washington and Tessa Berenson in Ellesborough, England

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