Just in the nick of time, the (DOJ) US Department of Justice’s Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who is in charge of the FBI’s Trump Russia probe being led by the Special Counsel Robert Mueller III, has announced at a press conference that a host of indictments have been filed with the courts against specific Russian operatives and entities which had direct involvement in computer interference at unprecedented levels of the US 2016 elections infrastructure. Mr. Rosenstein, stated that no Americans have been included in these indictments but he reminded the public, that the investigation into Russia’s attack on the US is still on-going.
See: Read Mueller probe indictment of 12 Russians for hacking Democrats/ Washington Post
PM MAY/ PRESIDENT TRUMPThe Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein did state that the republican President Donald Trump has been briefed as to these developments prior to his NATO visit which means that this time the US president is armed with absolute proof of Russia’s interference in US elections as he meets with the Russian President Vladimir Putin for their scheduled tete-a-tete around the 16th of July 2018 in Helsinki, Finland.
PM MAY/ PRESIDENT TRUMPWhat is puzzling about this latest news is that President Trump at the July 13th press conference with UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May, was still making statements that he will be asking President Putin about Russia’s meddling and he continued to refer to the FBI’s Trump -Russia probe as a “Witch Hunt.” This is puzzling as he supposedly had solid proof that the Russia’s GRU managed this operation.
Frankly, if President Trump can’t figure out how to confront Russia’s President Putin about his GRU’s operation to interfere in the US elections, then he should cancel this summit.
On July 13, 2018, Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post penned the following report, “Mueller probe indicts 12 Russians for hacking Democrats in 2016″
Excerpts:
“A dozen Russian intelligence officers have been charged with conspiring to hack Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a new indictment in the probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.”
“The 12 were members of a Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU and are accused of engaging in a sustained effort to hack the computer networks of Democratic organizations and the Hillary Clinton campaign.”
“Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein detailed the new charges at a midday news conference. Mueller, as has been his practice, did not attend the announcement. Court records show that a grand jury Mueller has been using returned an indictment Friday morning.”
“The announcement comes days before President Trump is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland. Rosenstein said he briefed Trump earlier this week on the charges.”
“The 11-count indictment spells out in granular detail a carefully planned and executed attack on the information security of Democrats, implanting hundreds of malware files on Democrats’ computer systems, stealing information, and then laundering the pilfered material through fake personas and others to try to influence voters’ opinions.”
“Rosenstein said the suspects worked to “hack into computers, steal documents, and release those documents with the intent to interfere with the election.”
“The hackers also created the false online personas DC Leaks and Guccifer 2.0 to try to disguise the Russian origins of their work, Rosenstein said.”
“He said the hackers interacted with some Americans in the course of their efforts, but noted that those people had not been charged with a crime.”
“There’s no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There’s no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result,” Rosenstein said. “The goal of the conspirators was to have an impact on the election. What impact they may have had . . . is a matter of speculation, that’s not our responsibility.”
“Mueller and a team of prosecutors have been working since May 2017 to determine whether any Trump associates conspired with Russia to interfere in the election. With the new indictment, his office has filed charges against 32 people on crimes ranging from hacking to money laundering to lying to the FBI. Twenty-six of those charged are Russians who are unlikely to ever be put on trial in the United States.”
See CNBC report: 5 key takeaways from the latest indictment in Mueller’s Russia probe
Gronda Morin 
“The 12 were members of a Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU and are accused of engaging in a sustained effort to hack the computer networks of Democratic organizations and the Hillary Clinton campaign.”
Trump: Why didn’t DNC hand over hacked server to FBI?
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/388507-trump-why-didnt-dnc-hand-over-hacked-server-to-fbi
https://www.quora.com/Regarding-the-hacking-of-the-DNC-why-didnt-the-FBI-itself-ask-for-access-to-the-DNC-server
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Dear 1Earth:
Just a little more reasoning as to why the physical server was not simply handed over to the FBI. If you read he part that I will post here, perhaps it will give you a little understand as to the possible reasons the DNC chose to retain possession of the actual server. You might not that while the server was not physically handed over to the FBI the data involvint problem area showing where and when the hack occurred was provided to the FBI.
“”t’s part of a long-standing division of labor between private firms and law enforcement, in which incident response firms handle the initial analysis and network cleanup, leaving broader legal questions to law enforcement. That division of labor saves time, but it also protects companies from what could potentially be seen as an invasion of privacy. Turning over a company’s entire network to a law enforcement agency can be an awkward proposition, particularly before the nature of the compromise is clear.
That’s particularly true for the DNC, since the FBI was actively investigating Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information at the time — and it’s clear the agency had no reservations about searching for evidence of those crimes in unrelated cases. Similar awkwardness is common at corporate breaches, and the result has given incident response firms like CrowdStrike a persistent business as intermediaries between companies and law enforcement.””
Can you after reading this consider the reasons that the DNC was reluctant to simply hand over the server?
https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/5/14178806/fbi-dnc-hack-server-examined-forensics-russia
NOTE: I can not guarantee that this site has or has no political bias in their reporting, however the basic information I provided has also been reported on numerous other non biased sites..
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Dear Crustyolemothman,
Thanks for the assist.
Hugs, Gronda
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Crusty, that is the best explanation I’ve heard to date. Thank You!!! Rationally it makes alot of sense, whether Crowdstrike’s handling and analysis of the server info is accurate, I wouldn’t know. Again as you said, whether political bias was introduced into this reporting, the layperson would not be privy to.
I suppose that would be up to the FBI and SC Mueller to investigate further, perhaps he’ll factor this into the investigation. We’re all trying to get to the truth… good, bad and ugly.
As far as hacker forum discussions go:
Not the CrowdStrike that is “pay to attribute” contractor, hired by the DNC, whose biggest customer is Obama’s administration, and whose management is a part of Atlantic Council, which is StateDep/NATO/Saudi-funded pro-Cold War neocon/neolib think tank.
Their evidence, as it turns out, not only does not show that the hacks had anything to do with the Russian government, but also even with Russia at all. All they have is an old Ukrainian hacking tool software, that is publicly available and could be used by anyone, and a set of IPs, overwhelming majority of which have nothing to do with Russia (and bulk of which are simply TOR nodes). They falsely claim that this combination of software and IPs, called APT28 (29, et cetera), is a hacking group while in reality it is an abstract that does not indicate actual hacking group at all.
Posted on Jan 6, 2017 | 12:54 AM
… from a computer geek’s POV, this makes sense to me. But I’m sure there are many other factors coming into play, we’re not aware of… yet.
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Dear 1EarthUnited,
There are conflicting stories over this issue. What’s important is to face the reality of today. Blaming others in the past is a way to deflect from dealing with the situation of today which is, that Russia attacked US 2016 elections infrastructure and that “we the people” need to know what is currently being done to prevent future attacks.
We can resolve past issues for the history books. Right now we need to do a triage to deal with an existing emergency situation.
Hugs, Gronda
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Gronda, ur absolutely right, blame is inconsequential and we need to focus on the objective. As a computer geek, I am interested in the nature of the hack, and what was actually on those DNC servers. Again, not to cast blame, but to reveal the truth… wherever that may lead.
Did Russia manipulate our social media to influence the election? YES 100%. Can we prove it beyond a shadow of doubt? That would be tricky, and require extensive computer data forensics and analysis. Perhaps the NSA could lend a hand? I have suspicions that Ed Snowden knows more than he’s leading on, too bad he’s in Russia doing lord knows what.
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It is now being reported that the Republican freedom caucus and Jim Jordan are preparing to file impeachment papers on Monday against Rosenstein. Isn’t simply amazing that they would chose to do this on the very day tRump is meeting with Putin? Mueller’s days are getting close and the Republicans simply do not care about this nation…
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Dear Crustyolemothman
Those same GOP Sycophants to President Trump are madder than a lot of bees being messed with. Their plans to humiliate FBI agent Peter Strzok backfired where they looked like the biased unhinged persecutors that they are.
They are blaming Deputy AG Rosenstein that Mr. Strzok was barred from answering questions related to current FBI investigations instead of the FBI attorneys who were advising him.
Hugs, Gronda
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Dear Mz. Gronda,
Here is something else that may have a bearing on the panic from our GOP congressmen!
2. An American congressional candidate allegedly asked for, and received, stolen documents about his or her opponent from the Russians. According to the indictment, the operatives allegedly provided stolen campaign documents to a candidate for Congress. “On or about August 15, 2016, the conspirators received a request for stolen documents from a candidate for U.S. Congress,” the indictment said. The conspirators “sent the candidate stolen documents related to the candidate’s opponent.”
The candidate was not identified in the indictment.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/5-key-takeaways-from-the-latest-indictment-in-muellers-russia-probe/ar-AAA2gCH?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
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Dear Crustyolemothman,
Thanks a million for the reference. I added a footnote to this report. The current indictments are a precursor to American conspirators being named. That’s why the AG Rosenstein is asking all of us to be Americans first as it was the US democracy that was attacked and harmed.
Hugs, Gronda
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