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The Washington Post reports FBI’s investigation of Trump included a counterintelligence inquiry:
The FBI investigation into President Trump that was opened almost immediately after he fired then-Director James B. Comey also included a counterintelligence component to determine if the president was seeking to help Russia, and if so, why, according to people familiar with the matter.
The decision by then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe to open an investigation of a sitting president was a momentous step, but it came after Trump had cited the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election in his decision to fire Comey, these people said.
The counterintelligence component of the Trump investigation was first reported by the New York Times.
Late Saturday night, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro asked Trump in an interview if he is or ever was working for Russia. Trump responded, "I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked." Referring to the New York Times story, he went on, "I think it’s the most insulting article I’ve ever had written."
See also The Guardian.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Sulla on Sunday January 13 2019, @07:14PM (14 children)
We keep bouncing between either Trump being a Russian agent or Trump being a petulant child who listens to nobody but himself. How can he take orders from the Russians if he refuses to listen to anybody but himself? Unless Trump is in fact Putin in a mask, or Putin is Trump in a mask? Or maybe Netanyahu has both Trump and Putin masks and is pulling all the strings.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @07:27PM (3 children)
That last one is closer to the truth than you might realize.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @09:03PM (2 children)
Get with the plot: a lizard, wearing a Netinyahu mask, is pulling all the strings.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday January 14 2019, @06:43PM (1 child)
Oh, this is some new "Sci-Fi" show from the SyFy Channel?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Tuesday January 15 2019, @07:03PM
I was thinking People Of Earth, but maybe SyFy has something too?
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Sunday January 13 2019, @10:24PM (8 children)
Neither necessarily needs to be true.
It's entirely possible that the Russians took action to discredit Hillary Clinton without any direct coordination with the Trump campaign.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson makes this argument in her book Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know [oup.com].
If you're not a reader, you can see the author present her arguments [c-span.org].
The primary argument she makes is that the targeting of voters discrediting Clinton/glorifying Trump by Russian trolls didn't require any active cooperation/coordination with the Trump campaign. She points out that media coverage of the campaigns could have given them more than enough information to target specific groups in support of Trump.
It's an interesting read. I recommend it.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Sunday January 13 2019, @11:02PM (4 children)
Have read similar takes, and this is what seems like happened to me. The Russians appeared to want to cause general chaos to weaken the US. Russia would have tried to cause chaos regardless, but them targeting a person like Hillary is not surprising. I imagine they would have (maybe did) go just as hard on Jeb, Kasich, (enter neocon here).
Am kind of annoyed that a lot of the memes that the media has claimed over the past couple of years were made and distributed by Russians/Russian bots were actually made by 4chan/pol/ who supported Trump for the lulz at first and then later in revenge at the MediaMatters/CorrectTheRecord people spamming the site. The images made and distributed by legit Russians on facebook were garbage. Bad english, etc.
Had low energy Jeb! Revealed just how autistic he was earlier in the elction it would have been a much different meme war.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Monday January 14 2019, @02:52AM (3 children)
Hell, Russia could have trolled best by framing both sides for colluding with them. If they pulled that off, they'd make both side look like patsies or idiots. If it only worked on one side, then they make the attempts to frame the other seem to be an op by the US candidate they framed so they're framed twice. What's not to like?
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday January 14 2019, @04:00AM (1 child)
I can't recall the timeframe, but I thought six or so months ago I read an article from CNN about how there was propaganda put out by the Russians in support of both sides, just there had been more support for Trump. Had Trump lost nobody would have cared about the pro-Trump Russian propaganda but people would have been real concerned about the pro-Hillary Russian propaganda. When I read the article it seemed to me Russia was hedging their bets.
Throughout this whole ordeal I have not questioned whether Russia is being a bad actor, I have just questioned whether or not it is something worth dying for. I think foreign bad actors are going to be expected. We are, atm, the world superpower. Everybody everywhere is spying on us and trying to influence us as much as they can. Influence by Russia is generally not accepted, yet influence by the Chinese and Israelies is currently seen as generally okay. Its not like we haven't bought soviet premiers in the past, and given the close ties we have had with Putin off and on it would not be surprising if we had some influence on his rise to power in the first place.
For me the whole thing falls into the "don't let it happen again" thing. I would prefer do that by improving our own defenses rather than being offensive about it.
I would also like to propose that it might not have been Russia, or at least partially not Russia. What did Russia have to gain from US chaos? I mean they do appear to like to be general asshats to us, as we do do them. The country right now that benefits most from both a disorganized US and negative US-Russia relation is China. The Chinese were the party that most likely hacked Hillary's server as around the time her server had been compromised the Chinese off-ed all US agents in their country. The bad US-Russian relations have pushed Russia closer to China as over the past decade Russia has been trying to be considered part of Europe instead of Asia. It caused damage to the Russian-Indian relationship where they were building a joint strike fighter and developing new long range missiles.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @11:43AM
Both Clinton and Trump had ties to both Russia and to each other.
So why would it be that hard to believe that both parties could have been working with Russia, even while pretending Russia was an antogonist? We have LLNL working with Russian scientists *IN RUSSIA* on synthesizing new elements. So it's not like America isn't pretty cozy with Russia when it benefits us on any particular level.
Back to the original point: Trump is more or less a RINO to begin with, having been cozy with Clinton and others as a Democrat up until 5-10 years ago. Having not been a lifelong republican, it seems odd that so many lifelong Republicans treat him like the conservative messiah, even ones who during the election hated on him for not being conservative enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @03:38PM
Trump doesn't need help to look like an idiot.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Monday January 14 2019, @12:28AM
The primary argument she makes is that the targeting of voters discrediting Clinton/glorifying Trump by Russian trolls didn't require any active cooperation/coordination with the Trump campaign.
That's right. It only requires that idiots believe everything they read on Facebook. Makes the job pretty easy. The DNC wins either way. After the bullshit of Obama's first two years, everybody's running back to the democrats because of the Trump Circus. Makes me wonder if he's doing it on purpose. He always was a democrat, and he's still very good friends with the Clintons. He owes a lot to them.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday January 14 2019, @06:38PM (1 child)
discrediting Clinton/glorifying Trump by Russian trolls didn't require any active cooperation/coordination with the Trump campaign.
Well, it didn't REQUIRE coordination, but it turns out they went ahead and coordinated anyway. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday January 14 2019, @07:09PM
That's an interesting point, and you may well be correct, but I don't have enough actual facts to satisfy me that it is. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that *I* lack the evidence to conclusively say you are correct.
I would point out that long before the 2016 election, folks over at Crowdstrike identified DNS traffic from the Trump Organization querying addresses of servers at Alfa Bank and vice versa [slate.com]. The article posits that the traffic patterns appear to be a secretive communications channel between those organizations. I found that quite interesting when I read about it back in 2016.
But as the saying goes, there's what you know and what you can prove.
Shy of someone breaking Omerta [wikipedia.org] about this, we'll likely never know the full story.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 4, Interesting) by http on Sunday January 13 2019, @10:49PM
Assume Trump was smart enough to dissociate himself from Epstein after his plea bargain, and looked for a new source. Russian oligarchs provide, but with covert video surveillance. It's their own hotel, after all, and Trump is not that clever After a couple years, playback the tapes, and Trump does your bidding forever after.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.