Friday is a good day for Catholics to eat nothingburger
February 16, 2018 § 13 Comments
Rosenstein said there is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the scheme, nor is there any allegation that the scheme affected the outcome of the election
Zippy Catholic 
[…] Source: Zippy Catholic […]
“information warfare”…you mean trolling?
Scott W:
Yeah, it would be hard to imagine a more ludicrous face-saving move.
“After a year of investigation we found some Russian sock puppets and trolls on the Internet, so good thing the Obama White House and the Clinton campaign abused government power to wiretap Republicans looking for political dirt. Whew, world war three and constitutional crisis averted!”
Is it illegal to try to influence and election? Is that not what straight up advertising does? And, if that is the case, when it is established that falsehood or half-truths have been used for such “normal” advertising, why are there not indictments? Surely the nationality of the people involved cannot matter one iota. People lie and hide circumstances and damaging/prejudicial information all the time when immigrating, seeking permanent residence ior even citizenship. Heck, they even use alternate identities, from time to time. The Immigration Judge usually lets them off the hook unless there are serious, substantive issues.
I am sure I am naive. I did not read the indictment because the government cannot get to the heart of things and lay out, exactly, the facts in anything it does. I have seen this for many years. Therefore, I did not waste my time.
Were there any REAL CRIMES or GOOD LAWS that were broken involved in this?
Or is this, honestly, just a witch hunt.
No, B.S., I do not want to be duped, here, in Zippyland.
Karl,
I haven’t done due diligence either, just read a few news reports. But as I understand it the Russians who have been charged allegedly shitposted about the election on the Internet via proxies from US IP addresses. They also had not registered as foreign agents with the election commission or whatever. Apparently under Mueller’s legal theory, shitposting under those conditions is an indictable offense.
Apparently some 28 year old California two bit huckster sold them some stolen-identity info — I think we are supposed to infer that they used this to make their sock puppets more credible?
Anyway, the legal theory that shitposting without registering as a foreign agent with the election commission is an indictable offense raises all sort of questions. Foreign tourists in the US who comment on Internet forums might all be indictable under that theory, simply because they post from US IP addresses.
But that’s all I know, and of course I could be wrong.
Zippy,
You also could be unfamiliar with lawyer-speak. The important legal point is the conspiracy to defraud. Furthermore, the Russian social media operation was spending over a million dollars a month.
Regarding the FISA warrant, please read this.
Regarding the indictment, I reckon it’s safe. There’s no way in Hell Russia is going to extradite any Russian nationals to face any charges, and if they’re in-country it’s fairly easy to not interfere with them buying plane tickets to Moscow. This sounds to me like a great way to blow a lot of smoke for short-term political ends, rather than a real attempt to grab power of some sort.
Of course, I’m not a politico or policy wonk, and don’t usually waste much time reading anything that originates in Washington either, so it’s not exactly like I’m an authority on these matters.
Step2, I look forward to the links you conjure up when the military tribunals begin.
Andrew E:
Not an original question of mine, but can you imagine the shrieking, riots, and indictments if a Republican administration had the FBI use top secret FISA warrants + “unmasking,” based on a made up dossier financed by the Republican candidate, to clandestinely wiretap the Democratic candidate’s headquarters looking for dirt? And if the same raving anti-Democrat agent and his mistress were central to clearing the Republican candidate of obvious criminal mishandling of classified information by using a private, illegal email server as a means of avoiding doing things on the record?
Regarding the Popehat link, significant omissions may not taint the case, but they open the affiant up to criminal prosecution. Mueller and company should also be a little humble because FISA warrant applications require the signature of one of a few very high level men at the FBI, DoJ or DNI. In the event that Sessions wakes up and does his job, it won’t just be a field agent getting thrown under the bus and squashed like a bug.
The important question is what is the Establishment hiding that they would go such lengths to keep Trump out of office? What were Obama and Hillary (and Bush) up to that can never be allowed to see the light of day? We’re going to find out.
Zippy,
Of course I dispute your hypothetical question. Until the Democrat’s countermemo is released we don’t know what info was included with the FISA warrant besides some sections of the dossier. While I certainly consider it likely that the dossier contains some errors (even Steele doesn’t claim it is totally correct), that is a far cry from being made up. Steele was a British spy under diplomatic cover in Russia, then later head of the Russia desk at MI6 and a valued FBI partner during the FIFA corruption investigation. The lawyer for Fusion GPS indicated in Congressional testimony that one of the sources for the dossier had been killed, which is a strange response from Moscow if the source had been misleading. The original Fusion GPS investigation without Steele found plenty of public evidence for money laundering (often by the Russian mob) and that was funded by a Republican supporter. The FISA warrant on Page was approved after he was no longer part of the campaign and the warrant requires 90 day renewals that must show new relevant information was gleaned. It was renewed three times so it is natural to wonder what Carter Page was doing with the Russians after he was no longer connected to the campaign. According to the dossier he was personally involved with the Rosneft deal. Lastly, with Kushner still operating on an interim security clearance, still getting a copy of the top secret Presidential Daily Brief, and making his fortieth amendment to his financial disclosure form only last month, I’m impressed you still believe Hillary’s mistakes should be continuously dredged up as a dire threat to national security.
I’m not impressed at all that you think a Secretary of State’s email being housed on an insecure and readily accessible server is a threat to national security. I’m not impressed because the conclusion is obvious, and you aren’t known to be a window-licker.