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You are here: Home / Politics / America / The Maskirovka Slips XV: Guccifer 2.0 Is Finally Exposed

The Maskirovka Slips XV: Guccifer 2.0 Is Finally Exposed

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From Spencer Ackerman and Kevin Poulsen at The Daily Beast:

Guccifer 2.0, the “lone hacker” who took credit for providing WikiLeaks with stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, was in fact an officer of Russia’s military intelligence directorate (GRU), The Daily Beast has learned. It’s an attribution that resulted from a fleeting but critical slip-up in GRU tradecraft.

That forensic determination has substantial implications for the criminal probe into potential collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia. The Daily Beast has learned that the special counsel in that investigation, Robert Mueller, has taken over the probe into Guccifer and brought the FBI agents who worked to track the persona onto his team.

Mueller’s office declined to comment for this story. But the attribution of Guccifer 2.0 as an officer of Russia’s largest foreign intelligence agency would cross the Kremlin threshold—and move the investigation closer to Trump himself.

Proving that link definitively was harder. Ehmke led an investigation at ThreatConnect that tried to track down Guccifer from the metadata in his emails. But the trail always ended at the same data center in France. Ehmke eventually uncovered that Guccifer was connecting through an anonymizing service called Elite VPN, a virtual private networking service that had an exit point in France but was headquartered in Russia.

 But on one occasion, The Daily Beast has learned, Guccifer failed to activate the VPN client before logging on. As a result, he left a real, Moscow-based Internet Protocol address in the server logs of an American social media company, according to a source familiar with the government’s Guccifer investigation. Twitter and WordPress were Guccifer 2.0’s favored outlets. Neither company would comment for this story, and Guccifer did not respond to a direct message on Twitter.

Working off the IP address, U.S. investigators identified Guccifer 2.0 as a particular GRU officer working out of the agency’s headquarters on Grizodubovoy Street in Moscow. (The Daily Beast’s sources did not disclose which particular officer worked as Guccifer.)

Security firms and declassified U.S. intelligence findings previously identified the GRU as the agency running “Fancy Bear,” the ten-year-old hacking organization behind the DNC email theft, as well as breaches at NATO, Obama’s White House, a French television station, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and countless NGOs, and militaries and civilian agencies in Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.

Much, much more at the link. Including a recounting of how the GRU officer posing as Guccifer 2.0’s stolen data was used by Republican campaigns aside from the presidential election. Now that Special Counsel Mueller can tie Guccifer 2.0 directly to the GRU (Russian military intelligence), it means that the counterintelligence portion of his investigation will not be contained just to the presidential campaign. Any Republican campaign official and/or operation; any Republican candidate, whether they won their race or not; and any conservative group that got and/or used Guccifer 2.0’s stolen Democratic information are highly likely to also be in the Special Counsel’s crosshairs.

As is the case with all the breaking Cambridge Analytica news this week, Ackerman’s and Poulsen’s reporting provides significant new information about another major and significant bridging node in Russia’s active measures and cyberwarfare network. This provides those of us paying attention and following the news reporting on Putin’s Cold War against the US, as well as our allies and partners, important information of who was doing what, when, and on whose behalf. It also tells us that the counterintelligence component of the Special Council’s investigation is still cranking away on determining the full dimensions and parameters of Putin’s active measures and cyberwarfare campaign against the US.

Stay frosty!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

247Comments

  6. 6.

    Princess

    Any Republican campaign official and/or operation; any Republican candidate, whether they won their race or not; and any conservative group that got and/or used Guccifer 2.0’s stolen Democratic information are highly likely to also be in the Special Counsel’s crosshairs.

    So an awful lot of Republicans will have an interest in ending Mueller’s job as special counsel.

  7. 7.

    Adam L Silverman

    @sukabi: Nope, according to Ackerman and Poulsen’s reporting, two different (sequentially – one replaced the other) senior GRU officers.

  8. 8.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Adam L Silverman:
    By now, we have to be asking who are the targets Mueller considers high value enough that he’s collecting his information with the aim of taking down. He doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to make a plea deal with Roger Stone.

  11. 11.

    Jeffro

    Now that Special Counsel Mueller can tie Guccifer 2.0 directly to the GRU (Russian military intelligence), it means that the counterintelligence portion of his investigation will not be contained just to the presidential campaign. Any Republican campaign official and/or operation; any Republican candidate, whether they won their race or not; and any conservative group that got and/or used Guccifer 2.0’s stolen Democratic information are highly likely to also be in the Special Counsel’s crosshairs.

    How. Does. He. Decide. every morning, “who shall I flip TODAY? who shall spill their guts over this highly-convoluted, ridiculous, unnecessary, and totally unpatriotic scam, this last refuge of scoundrels who can’t win elections just on the merits?”

    As is the case with all the breaking Cambridge Analytica news this week, Ackerman’s and Poulsen’s reporting provides significant new information about another major and significant bridging node in Russia’s active measures and cyberwarfare network. This provides those of us paying attention and following the news reporting on Putin’s Cold War against the US, as well as our allies and partners, important information of who was doing what, when, and on whose behalf. It also tells us that the counterintelligence component of the Special Council’s investigation is still cranking away on determining the full dimensions and parameters of Putin’s active measures and cyberwarfare campaign against the US.

    What is amazing is: this whole unbelievable fiasco is probably the result of less than 50 people total, worldwide. That’s including both Guccifer 2.0 officers AND Roger Stone there. That’s all it took to tip the balance, to throw the world’s greatest and oldest democracy into this shithole alternate reality.

    50 people, tops. That’s just fucking nuts.

  14. 14.

    tomtofa

    @sukabi:

    The real question is, is Guccifer 2.0 a 400 lb. man?

    People keep mischaracterizing Trump on this. He said the hacker “could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds”. The bed, the bed – not the man. I can easily imagine a Russian security officer in his fancy dacha having a 400 pound bed – perk of the office.

  15. 15.

    Yutsano

    @Princess: That’s the kicker: removing the Special Counsel won’t end the investigation. Mueller may or may not go, but the investigation itself still continues.

  16. 16.

    mad citizen

    Our 241 year old nation continues to hang on a small group of people investigating a criminal conspiracy at the highest levels. Here’s hoping!

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    And just to be thorough, this one as well:

    Ewwwwww!!!!!!!

  24. 24.

    mai naem mobile

    Does this mean Roger Stone goes to a federal prison in the Deep South, with no a/c and crappy food, for a long long time? We deserve at least that much if Doit45 doesnt end up in SuperMax.

  26. 26.

    mad citizen

    @Jeffro: I’m hoping Mueller has a spinning wheel with the criminals’ names on it to decide who to flip.

    If at some point we had gone to popular vote for President, we wouldn’t be in this nightmare. Aside from everything else, I’d really like to hear gerrymandering and nixing the Electoral College as major issues in the next two campaigns.

    Great Scoop!

  27. 27.

    Adam L Silverman

    @mad citizen: And the vast swath of the citizenry that are not willing to put up with this. Get everyone you know to register to vote. And everyone they know. Then get them to vote. And everyone they know to do so as well. The midterm elections, from municipal and municipal special district offices to US Senator and every office in between are very, very important. That is one of the most important theaters, if not the most important theater, that this war will be fought on.

  33. 33.

    mai naem mobile

    @Adam L Silverman: i think he said that to Stormy Daniels as well. BTW, I wonder if Melania gets to redo the prenuptial again. Does she have a lawyer on call with her standard prenup with a blank for the dollar amount so that he can change it with each bimbo eruption? Also too, if I was Melania I would hire the Avinetti guy for the divorce.

  34. 34.

    Adam L Silverman

    This looks interesting!

  40. 40.

    Jay

    @Princess:

    Actually, an awful lot of Republicans will be wearing orange coveralls,

    The 2018 Polonium Epidemic in DC’s gonna be awesome.

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    @Corner Stone: Um, sophisticated wild-ass-guess? Take Trumpov’s campaign clowns (the top dozen or so), figure there were about as many low-level cut-outs like Stone and Papadopoulus and Page, add in another dozen Russians, stir in Assange and Prince, and top off with folks like Nunes = 50 max. It’ll be sad to see if/when it comes in lower than that, because it will.

  45. 45.

    different-church-lady

    @Jay:

    The 2018 Polonium Epidemic in DC’s gonna be awesome.

    You shouldn’t joke about that.

    .

    […but please continue anyway.]

  47. 47.

    mad citizen

    Thanks for the encouragement, I agree of course. Vote vote vote!!! I’m not making promises about registering people, but will try to report if I do. My wfie and me are planning on going to the local march for our lives event Saturday.

  48. 48.

    Jeffro

    @mad citizen: The EC clearly needs to go…if it won’t stop the most obviously incompetent, corrupt, illegitimate president-elect in our lifetimes, then it serves no purpose (other than increasing the voting ‘weight’ of small rural states, and fuck them).

  49. 49.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @different-church-lady:
    Yes. I do think Melania is essentially a sex worker on a long term contract. Of course she knew ahead of time that Trump would sleep around as much as he could. She made her decisions accordingly. I feel bad for McDougal, who it sounds like was naive enough to think he actually thought of her as anything other than a prostitute herself. You don’t have to be in love for that to be a crushing betrayal. It turns everything you think you did it for, even if that’s just ‘We’re getting along well and having fun’ into a lie. I don’t blame her for falling for it, either. I doubt she had enough warning about him at the time to know just how vile he is. He’s way beyond ‘shallow and egotistical.’

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    I wonder whether, in a few centuries or millennia, the names “Trump,” “Flynn,” “Sessions,” “Kushner,” et al.* will be thought of in the same way we think of, for instance, Caligula, Nero, Borgia, and Machiavelli.

    *Not intended to be a complete list, by a long shot.

  53. 53.

    sukabi

    @Mary G: a surprise appearance by Mr. Mueller and his crew dragging a crate of indictments and accompanying bracelets would be too much to ask for I’m guessing.

  57. 57.

    Mike in NC

    Gonna love the smell of more indictments on Friday morning. Smells like one step closer to victory.

  58. 58.

    GregB

    Oh boy.

    This looks like the big enchilada.

    Does anyone have that video of the Trump crew getting dragged off to a crooner’s song?

  59. 59.

    patroclus

    Not to get off the subject, but I’m watching C-SPAN 2 and there’s a good chance that the government may shut down yet again tomorrow thanks to the ever-present Rand Paul’s shenanigans.

  60. 60.

    Fair Economist

    U.S. investigators identified Guccifer 2.0 as a particular GRU officer working out of the agency’s headquarters

    I expect a certain GRU officer is going to take an accidental swan dive out of a 5th floor window or drop a bathtub on his head or some such in the near future.

  61. 61.

    hueyplong

    When shit like Bolton as NSD happens, I have to go to a happier place. I imagine Roger Stone in a windowless room. Mueller enters. Stone says he’s ready to flip, asks what Mueller wants to know.

    Mueller takes a quarter out of his pocket and says, “What’s the most you have ever lost on a coin toss?”

  65. 65.

    Fair Economist

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I wonder whether, in a few centuries or millennia, the names “Trump,” “Flynn,” “Sessions,” “Kushner,” et al.* will be thought of in the same way we think of, for instance, Caligula, Nero, Borgia, and Machiavelli.

    No. Those historical figures were all smart (even if the Roman emperors were loco).

    Putin might be thought of like them. Trump will be thought of more like Caligula’s horse, perhaps viewed from the rear.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s quite possible that “Trump” will survive, in a reverse-Machiavelli kind of way. Like, “be evil…but do everything you can to step on your own wang, publicly and loudly”

    The rest don’t even deserve footnotes. How could they? They cycle in, implode, and leave with crap all over them, never to be employed again.

    Actually, THAT might last several centuries: “to be Trumped”, as in, “to be so utterly debased by willing service to the lowest form of humanity that one is actually *below* that person”
    That’s a definition that might last a while…

  70. 70.

    tomtofa

    I hope Mueller isn’t a drinker. If he is he’s in the corner of a bar somewhere right now, head bent, crying into his drink and muttering “There are just too many, I can’t put all this together. Isn’t there a single goddamned innocent person anywhere in this mix?”

  71. 71.

    MobiusKlein

    Myself, I am literally sick from all the botnet / cyberwar / money laundering crap going on. (yes, ER visit from stress several months ago.)
    And yes, so much of it seems to come from Russia and other malicious sources. When a million IP addresses get used in one time attacks, this is a situation that has gotten out of control. I’m seriously considering breaking into people’s houses and ‘fixing’ their routers on a mass scale. You phone infected with malware bot crap? Plasma torch to the rescue.

  73. 73.

    Mnemosyne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I’m going to paint with a broad brush and posit that someone who makes porn her career probably has some major psychological issues that go back to her childhood, most of which probably involve family members with Cluster B personality disorders like narcissism, borderline personality, sociopathy, etc.

    I doubt that Trump was her first relationship with a narcissist. For her, a guy like that would be familiar and hard to resist.

  74. 74.

    Mike J

    Off topic:
    SELECT Committees.NAME, new_table.CMTE_ID, new_table.NAME, new_table.CITY, new_table.STATE, new_table.TRANSACTION_AMT, new_table.MEMO_TEXT
    from new_table
    inner join Committees on new_table.CMTE_ID = Committees.committee_id
    where new_table.NAME='CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA';

    ‘NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY’, ‘C00038505’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘WILMINGTON’, ‘DE’, ‘65000.00’, ‘MICROTARGETING CONSULTING FEES’
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘57275.00’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘114550.00’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘30000.00’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘113674.50’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘57275.00’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘196000.00’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘98000.00’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘98000.00’, ”
    ‘KEEP THE PROMISE II’, ‘C00575431’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘500000.00’, ”
    ‘KEEP THE PROMISE II’, ‘C00575431’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘70000.00’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘6500.00’, ”
    ‘JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC’, ‘C00542464’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘40000.00’, ”
    ‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘231352.00’, ”
    ‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘301763.00’, ”
    ‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘110000.00’, ”
    ‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘6000.00’, ”
    ‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘301763.00’, ”
    ‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘1870.00’, ”
    ‘MAKE AMERICA NUMBER 1’, ‘C00575373’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘ALEXANDRIA’, ‘VA’, ‘-110000.00’, ‘SEE SCH. E LINE 24; ORIGINALLY REPORTED ON SCH B LINE 21B M9’
    ‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘100000.00’, ”
    ‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘90000.00’, ”
    ‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘30000.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘52495.16’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘141417.84’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘556459.57’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘71809.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘100000.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘114708.47’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘300000.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘500000.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘978655.24’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘990818.24’, ”
    ‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘163065.09’, ”
    ‘CARSON AMERICA’, ‘C00573519’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘55000.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘8400.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘358009.87’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘250449.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘389652.22’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘243047.45’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘122610.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘62925.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘87185.00’, ”
    ‘CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT’, ‘C00574624’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘476910.17’, ”
    ‘FRIENDS OF ROY BLUNT’, ‘C00304758’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘12000.00’, ”
    ‘THOM TILLIS COMMITTEE’, ‘C00545772’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘25000.00’, ”
    ‘THOM TILLIS COMMITTEE’, ‘C00545772’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘25000.00’, ”
    ‘THOM TILLIS COMMITTEE’, ‘C00545772’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘25000.00’, ”
    ‘THOM TILLIS COMMITTEE’, ‘C00545772’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘25000.00’, ”
    ‘RICK KOZELL FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00579102’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘1500.00’, ”
    ‘RICK KOZELL FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00579102’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘1500.00’, ”
    ‘RICK KOZELL FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00579102’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘1500.00’, ”
    ‘RICK KOZELL FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00579102’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘BEVERLY HILLS’, ‘CA’, ‘710.50’, ”
    ‘WALTERS FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00546853’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘20000.00’, ”

  76. 76.

    Jay

    @Jeffro:

    It’s way more than 50,

    And then there’s all the Ususal Suspects who’s inaction, slurs and bloviating, means spending the rest of their lives having the FBI and IC pour through everything, looking for even the tiniest impropriety.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @hueyplong: Bolton will self destruct. He’s an unguided, self directing weapon of mass destruction. He will cause so much chaos and confusion that he will actually wind up defeating himself. What pissed the President off about LTG McMaster is that he actually did the job the right way and took his duties and responsibilities seriously. Bolton couldn’t care less about the Interagency and Interagency process. If Secretary Mattis and Gen (ret) Kelly couldn’t get along with LTG McMaster, which, I think, was partially because they’re 4 stars and he’s only a 3 star, yet he was the nat-sec and foreign policy gatekeeper, they’re definitely not going to get along with Bolton. He will so degrade and destroy the process that the President won’t be able to achieve anything in terms of national security and foreign policy. Remember, the US economy is about to be overrun by the Chinese in the coming trade war. Do you really think Bolton has any idea how to manage the Interagency process to minimize the damage to the US economy? Not a chance.

    This is definitely a sub-optimal choice, but mark my words, it’s not sub-optimal just because Bolton is an always wrong, belligerent, double A type authoritarian (kiss up, kick down). Rather it is sub-optimal because Bolton is going to self destruct, because that’s who and what Bolton is.

  80. 80.

    Mike in DC

    At some point Mueller will indict the Russian hackers, and Putin himself may be an unindicted co-conspirator (though indicting him would be a blast just to watch the ensuing shitstorm). That will create the predicate for any future conspiracy and obstruction charges.
    Of the “big fish” list, two are already caught, with one cooperating. The remainder:
    Sessions
    Don Jr
    Kushner
    Eric
    Ivanka
    Pence
    45

    The very first member of Team Trump to be indicted for conspiracy is likely to set off a political firestorm the likes of which we have never seen before.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    any Republican candidate, whether they won their race or not; and any conservative group that got and/or used Guccifer 2.0’s stolen Democratic information are highly likely to also be in the Special Counsel’s crosshairs.

    We’re gonna need a bigger paddy wagon.

  102. 102.

    Jeffro

    Strange that I know in my bones that this is coming to an end soon…because Fox News dot com is running with the McDougal affair story and not even trying to slant it.

    I think they’re done with him. We just have to make sure that they don’t try to “look forward, not back” – the whole ticket is corrupt and is the result of an attack by a hostile foreign power x criminal conspiracy. New election or declare the Democrat the winner, SCOTUS.

  103. 103.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I’m waiting for GG and Julian to weigh in before I rush to judgment.//

  104. 104.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mai naem mobile: BTW, I wonder if Melania gets to redo the prenuptial again

    I’ve been wondering if there was an addendum to get her to agree to stay till he’s out of the White House, an extra 50 grand a month, 10,000 for events like yesterday’s event on “anti-bullying”

  109. 109.

    Fair Economist

    I just looked at my pie list and – it works. Not many names, but they are all essentially gone and some used to be frequent. Use the power of pie!

  112. 112.

    mike in dc

    @B.B.A.: Well, in theory we could bring a case to the ICC, depending upon whether the charge was one recognized under the laws recognized by the ICC.

  115. 115.

    Ohio Mom

    @Jeffro: That’s what Margaret Mead said, it only takes a small group of committed people to change the world.

    Though I think she meant that in the sense of improving things.

  116. 116.

    sukabi

    @Jeffro: Tucker Carlson apparently unloaded on trump for choosing Bolton today…saw a headline, didn’t read it because -> Tucker Carlson.

  118. 118.

    GregB

    Dowd is now telling press Trump told him to make his fire Mueller announcement.

    McMasters is free to talk. Rex is free to talk.

    Avenatti us teasing with a photo of a DVD about what it contains.

    Tomorrow the stock market craters again.

    The Trump Train has begun exiting the rails.

  122. 122.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Matthew Yglesias @ mattyglesias
    A valuable reminder that “the establishment” view of foreign affairs is completely crazy and terrible in its own way too.
    Andrea Mitchell @ mitchellreports
    #HR McMaster gets a sustained spontaneous standing ovation when given shoutout tonight from Jeb Bush, speaking to US- Saudi dinner in DC honoring McCain and Bush 41 in absentia and attended by Saudi Crown Prince. Talk of the dinner: the big change at national security

    One wonders is Mrs Greenspan is there as a journalist or a (paying?) guest. I think we know. She used to troll the Iran deal like it was personal to her that it go down. (and whenever somebody makes a “but her emails…” joke, I hear it in her voice)

  123. 123.

    NotMax

    @mike in dc

    U.S. has never ratified the Rome Statute and has informed the ICC it has no intention to be a member nor to abide by nor be held to any obligations by dint of signing.

    BTW, just this week the U.N. informed the Philippines that they cannot immediately leave the ICC as Duterte wants but must wait for one year after giving notice to do so.

  126. 126.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: And given the amount of money the Mercer’s gave to Bolton’s Super PAC, and that Mercer is one of the owners of Cambridge Analytica, he was basically laundering his own money through Bolton’s Super PAC to his own business.

  130. 130.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: Which he also got from Mercer. Everyone Mercer backs is required to hire Mercer’s people as minders (Conway, Bannon, Bossie, and daughter Rebekah Mercer) and use his pet data shop Cambridge Analytica. Here’s a real question: how much did Mercer make off of all of this? He donates to the candidate and/or PAC. Then he requires them to hire his company to work for them. Mercer was using these campaigns and PACs as laundries.

  132. 132.

    ? Martin

    @Mike J:

    ‘WALTERS FOR CONGRESS’, ‘C00546853’, ‘CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA’, ‘NEW YORK’, ‘NY’, ‘20000.00’, ”

    I’ll be visiting her office on Saturday (assuming this fever breaks in time). CA-45 is being viewed as something of a national bellwether. First, consider that for a moment – a district deep in the middle of primarily white, affluent Orange County is being seen as a tossup.

    Perhaps I’ll make a nice sign with the above information.

  133. 133.

    patroclus

    Actually, it’s Senator Risch from Idaho that’s holding up the vote right now because the bill designates a wilderness area to be named after former Governor Cecil Andrus. Rand Paul is in his office trying to read the bill right now – he’s gotten up to page 600 so far.

    Dow Futures down 161 while the Asian markets plummet. “Normally,” one would expect a bounceback after such a down day. It looks like the rout is continuing instead. tech and Boeing just tanking…

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    President Donald Trump’s decision to abruptly fire national security adviser H.R. McMaster surprised senior White House aides who had been preparing a single statement announcing the departure of multiple top Trump officials, according to two senior administration officials.
    White House chief of staff John Kelly and other top aides were waiting for inspector general reports that they believed would deliver devastating verdicts on Veteran Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who have both been accused of racking up extravagant expenses. They were also debating whether several senior White House aides, including McMaster, should go with them.

    when do we move on to Pruitt and Zinke ?

  139. 139.

    ? Martin

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Bolton will self destruct. He’s an unguided, self directing weapon of mass destruction. He will cause so much chaos and confusion that he will actually wind up defeating himself.

    Problem is that Trump is much more of all of that, and here we are still stuck with him. I take your point that he serves at the pleasure of the President, where Trump can’t be summarily dismissed, but Bolton is a boot licker. He’s smart enough to know what to do to keep his job, so he’ll do his work by getting Trump on board and then being the worlds best defender of those stupid ideas.

  141. 141.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @patroclus:

    Burgess Everett @ burgessev
    Sen. Risch is trying to stop a park from being named after a dead former governor of his state.

    Phil Mattingly @ Phil_Mattingly
    Risch has been causing a scramble for staff and leadership all afternoon/evening. *Very* upset about the re-naming of the White Clouds Wilderness preserve in Idaho after a former political rival, sources say

    Well, Senator Risch sounds like a very stable genius. ETA: I think he’s in line to take over as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee when Corker’s gone, unless we take the Senate

  146. 146.

    patroclus

    McConnell’s invoking cloture and no one objected (Corker almost did but didn’t). It looks like Rand Paul played chicken for awhile and then folded because all post-cloture time is waived in the motion and they’ll move right to a vote right after this passes. So no shutdown (apparently).

  147. 147.

    Fair Economist

    @randy khan:

    Isn’t money from Bolton’s superPAC to CA just money out of one Mercer pocket into another?

    It’s money laundering. The Mercers could use this sequence to buy things they couldn’t buy directly – like Russian operative work. Putting money into an owned company directly looks odd, and there may be ownership details that interfere.

  148. 148.

    MoCA Ace

    @GregB:

    The Trump Train has begun exiting the rails.

    Begun? It feels like the train is in a twisted burning heap at the bottom of the gorge! But yet it always seems there is room for it to get worse!

  149. 149.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @patroclus: It looks like Rand Paul played chicken for awhile and then folded

    say, what? that doesn’t sound like the Rand Paul I know!

  154. 154.

    Jay

    @? Martin:

    Nobody’s gonna follow Bolton anywhere, not South Korea, not Britain, not Canada, not Australia, not France or Germany, not Georgia, not even the members of Bush’s Coelition of the Willing.

    He’s Internationally Recognized as a bugnutz crazy nutjob.

    With Bolton in as NSC, Treason Tribble’s Administration probably couldn’t even get transit agreements from former allies.

  156. 156.

    patroclus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Corker said that everyone’s got flights tomorrow morning to go home – Rand Paul probably does too. It’s not completely over though, so I’m still watching. Late night entertainment!

    Cloture passes.

  159. 159.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Beyond that. He is a horrible supervisor and manager. The non agency detailees on the National Security Staff, as in the people that McMaster hired directly and work for the Executive Office of the President, will begin to leave quickly. The actual detailees from the various agencies to the National Security Staff will ask for their assignments to be ended early and there won’t be volunteers to replace them. So the National Security Staff will atrophy, which will negatively impact the ability of the President’s national security and foreign policy initiatives. Ans since Bolton thinks everyone else is stupid and wrong, he will ignore, if not actively piss off, Secretary Mattis, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Joint Chiefs themselves, all of their deputies, the Secretary of State, etc. It is very difficult to conduct national security and foreign policy without a functioning process, which is why the process we have now was created.

  161. 161.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Jay:

    Nobody’s gonna follow Bolton anywhere, not South Korea, not Britain, not Canada, not Australia, not France or Germany, not Georgia

    I hope not—we’ve got enough problems as it is with Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina as border states!

  162. 162.

    Adam L Silverman

    Very stable genius!

  163. 163.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    IIRC (and may be off base about this), Treasury and State are also a part of the NSC. Can’t see either Mnuchin or Pompeo (for different reasons) at anything but constant loggerheads with Bolton.

  166. 166.

    MomSense

    @Mary G:

    I saw that!! As soon as I get home I’m going to start production. Bluegal is amazing.

    I went on a gorgeous walk through the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and saw so many beautiful creatures. After dinner I crashed for four hours and then woke up to all of this wild news. The scope of this is overwhelming. If it is mind blowing for those of us who have been following it obsessively, how are the people who’ve been stuck in the ? hole going to take it when all is revealed?

    This is going to be a wild ride for our country.

  167. 167.

    ? Martin

    California is out here trying to save y’all.

    San Francisco and Oakland (joined by some other cities including Richmond) are suing the oil companies over climate change. That’s notable when Chevron’s headquarters is just outside of Oakland and Richmond is home to major refineries.

    The oil companies are now in the ‘climate change is real’ phase and relying on the ‘we didn’t know’ defense. That doesn’t bode well for them, but it also means that the only people that reject climate change are the policy makers. The suit is an alternate path to the right outcome. The courts could rule that these companies have a financial responsibility to the result, even if there was no regulatory policy that they needed to adhere to. That would put the oil companies in support of regulation since it’d ensure they’re all on the same economic playing field if they have exposure to liability. That’s why companies like Toyota and Honda backed California emissions standards – it was a market opportunity for them with the Prius and Honda’s ZEVs that they knew their competitors would struggle to meet.

  168. 168.

    Barbara

    @GregB: My husband is positive that Trump told Dowd to say that and then got mad at him when it generated blowback from more than the usual suspects. Still, it’s kind of not cool for Dowd to say that as Trump’s personal attorney.

  169. 169.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Correct. I just didn’t feel like listing every department, office, and bureau within the NSC/Interagency.

  171. 171.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Gin & Tonic:

    “Could care less” vs. “Couldn’t care less” has been an issue for some time. Some of us could, and actually do, care about it. Most people couldn’t care less.

    Next up: “flammable” versus “inflammable”

  172. 172.

    Washburn

    The RWNJ blogs are already spinning this as, “So what, no evidence that Trump [himself] colluded.”

  173. 173.

    ? Martin

    Interesting turn tonight. The Sacramento Kings cancelled their game tonight when protestors shut down the stadium entrances over the police shooting there. Police violence is not something California has made progress on, and this is quite an effective and quickly organized response.

  174. 174.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: There was a comedian, I cannot recall which one, who used to do a joke like that about the stealth bomber. That we should have just held a press conference in front of nothing with a set of rolling stairs and some pilots and air crew standing around and announce our new completely invisible stealth bomber. And that it only cost $4 to build, so we built a million of them.

  175. 175.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Barbara: I heard a lawyer on MSNBC today (i was in the car so I don’t know who it was) say that Dowd could be in trouble with the bar for his flippity-floppity on saying he was speaking for trump, his client, when he called for Meuller to be shut down. Also, that problematic (obstucion-y) tweet he claimed authorship for a couple months back. I’ll defer to his fellow members on that.

    (wordpress spell check accepts floppily, but not flippity)

  179. 179.

    MomSense

    Hold up, didn’t Guccifer 2.0 at some point mention that He hacked the DNC through NGP VAN like Josh Uretsky and say something cryptic about “as it was agreed”.

    Anyone else remember this?

  180. 180.

    Jager

    I bought some incredible Ventura County grown strawberries today at a farm stand. After the Guccifer 2.0 news they are going to taste even better!

  181. 181.

    Mnemosyne

    @? Martin:

    I still can’t quite tell from the news reports if the guy who was shot was actually the guy who was seen breaking into cars, or if he was just some poor bastard standing in his backyard at the wrong time.

    Even if it was the former, it freaks me out that street theft has gone back to being a capital crime. I thought we left that behind a hundred years ago.

  183. 183.

    patroclus

    And the budget passes. It’s 6 months late and only lasts until 9/30 and the Budget Act requires that next year’s budget be passed in just a few weeks (which won’t happen). But we’re finally back to regular order. The bill itself at least funds the government and includes a bunch of good things and not a lot of bad stuff, which speaks well for the Dem negotiators (Patty Murray). But no DACA fix (we’re relying on the courts for that). And no wall! And no fiscal discipline. I would have voted for it, but hopefully, when they miss the deadlines for next year, we’ll have a new Dem Congress next year and a better overall bill.

  187. 187.

    Amir Khalid

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Trump thinks that stealth technology makes a plane invisible to the naked eye? I think Q once showed James Bond an invisible Aston Martin, but to my knowledge you Americans don’t have that technology.

  188. 188.

    Yutsano

    @NotMax: Oh Gawd. If the stupid idiot Dolt45 wants for the new commissioner gets in that’s a guarantee. A fucking Beverly Hills tax lawyer? Seriously?

  189. 189.

    ? Martin

    @Mnemosyne: They haven’t named him as a suspect. My guess is that they were going from a description and this guy fit it and hopping his back fence was enough to convince them he was a criminal, and owning a cell phone was enough to convince them he needed to die.

  196. 196.

    Citizen Alan

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I keep saying this. The pee tape is a misdirection. What they have is a tape of Shitgibbon having sex with a blond underage Russian prostitute who he loudly refers to as Ivanka.

  200. 200.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Fair Economist:
    I think Putin will be remembered as a selfish, evil man who put his own power and wealth over the interests of his own country as well as those of the rest of humanity.

    He probably doesn’t think on the scale I do and would probably laugh at me and call me a fool for thinking so. But make no mistake, he will not be remembered fondly.

  207. 207.

    Mnemosyne

    @? Martin:
    @Jay:

    Thanks. The trolls on Facebook keep claiming he was the robbery suspect the cops were looking for, but the footage didn’t seem to back that up.

  212. 212.

    MisterForkbeard

    @GregB:

    The Trump Train has begun exiting the rails.

    Begun? It fell off the rails a year ago. It’s been sliding and crashing into buildings and trees for months now, destroying infrastructure, jobs, and lives. But now it’s screeching towards a giant garbage fire, so we’ll see how that goes.

  213. 213.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Mnemosyne:
    You should ask the trolls why they’re trying so hard to argue the guy was the one breaking into cars when the footage doesn’t show that.

  216. 216.

    NotMax

    @Adam L.Silverman

    The day the pandaren expansion went live on World of Warcraft had previously planned to name my first pandaren Dimsum. Name was was already taken within the few minutes it took to create a character.

  217. 217.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mnemosyne:

    CNN still has the story as claiming the man who was shot was also the guy who was robbing cars.

    “Objectivity.”

  218. 218.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Mnemosyne:
    Have tried asking them if they think cops are capable of making mistakes/being corrupt? They’re as human as you and me and just as fallible.

  220. 220.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: They fucked up royally:
    https://www.thedailybeast.com/cops-killed-unarmed-stephon-clark-then-cut-their-audio-thats-unusual-expert-says/?via=twitter_page

    After Sacramento police officers shot and killed unarmed man Stephon Clark, they shut off the audio on their body cameras. And it doesn’t look good for the cops, experts and activists say.

    Clark, a 22-year-old black man, was in his own backyard Sunday night when two police officers shot at him 20 times, believing him to be holding a gun. He was only holding a phone.

    The shooting, which was filmed on two officers’ body cameras and a helicopter camera, is one of the first after a series of Sacramento police reforms requiring the department to release footage of deadly incidents. But it’s not clear whether the transparency will mean justice in Clark’s case.

    Sacramento police began pursuing Clark Sunday night, after receiving a 911 call about a man breaking into cars, The Sacramento Bee first reported. Clark has not been confirmed as the subject of the 911 call. In a statement, police said the 911 caller described the suspect as more than six feet tall, but Clark’s grandmother told the Bee her grandson was short. But two police officers starting following Clark, with backup from a police helicopter overhead.

    Footage from a heat-detecting camera in the helicopter showed Clark crossing between two backyards. Officers in the helicopter stated he broke a window in the first yard, although the alleged incident is not included in the footage. Then the officers in the helicopter suggested Clark might break into a vehicle.

    “He’s running toward the front yard,” an officer in the helicopter said of Clark, who was walking at the time. Then the officer implied Clark might break into a vehicle. “He’s looking into another car,” the officer said.

    The officer didn’t know Clark was in his own yard, looking at a car parked there. Clark was staying with his grandparents at the time, and his entrance through the backyard was normal, his grandmother told the Bee. The family home was large, and the doorbell was broken, prompting family members to knock on a back window to be let in, she said.

    More at the link.

  222. 222.

    Brachiator

    @Yutsano:

    @Amir Khalid: @Adam L Silverman: Didn’t we almost go to war with the Klingons over this?

    We have always been at war with the Klingons.

  223. 223.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    But that’s crazy. They can’t literally believe that. You must mean they make justifications and excuses for the police, right?

  226. 226.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Brachiator:
    There’s a fanfic somewhere in that, with Oceania as a Federation stand-in. Too bad they were progressively getting less advanced as time went on, not to mention drastically wasting tons of non-renewable resources.

  232. 232.

    Emerald

    @Citizen Alan: That indeed would be funsies, but I doubt what they have on him has anything to do with sexual misbehavior. He’s proud of that stuff.

    No. They’ve got him with money. Putin and his oligarchs have been basically financing his whole operation for years.

    That’s why he defers to Putin as though he were in hock to his bookie. It’s why he’s so scared of him.

    My $.02

  233. 233.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    They genuinely believe that the police can do no wrong, and if they seem to have done something wrong, there’s a good explanation that exonerates them.

    Maybe they were just trying to get out of jury service, but I heard someone say that during jury selection in a case involving police officers.

  234. 234.

    Mnemosyne

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Then it’s like a Catholic whose kid got molested by a priest. Some of them get pissed off and drop their “religion” saying that all cops are good. Others will say that the one bad cop just proves that all of the other cops are still good.

    If you think of it as a religious belief that’s not based in actual facts, it makes more sense, or at least as much sense as any other infalliable religious belief.

  235. 235.

    Ruckus

    @MoCA Ace:
    The drumpf train has left the rails and is hanging in the air like a road runner cartoon. It hasn’t realized that gravity and reality may take a bit of time to catch up, but they always do. That’s when you see that puff of dust as it lands miles down at the bottom. Don’t forget that surprised look as the realization that gross stupidity and arrogance don’t actually work as well as was imagined.

  243. 243.

    J R in WV

    @Mike J:

    Wow, that was a lot of work, creating that script. And it won’t work, you left off the semi-colon on the end!!

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