BLOG: The indictment of Russian Spies

Friday, July 13, 2018

The latest on the Donald Trump / Russia collusion investigation:

1. Here is a link to today's indictment of Russian spies, with direct links to the Russian government:
https://www.scribd.com/document/383793138/Netyksho-Et-Al-Indictment#from_embed

2. Here is a link to today's announcement from the Department of Justice entitled: "Grand Jury Indicts 12 Russian Intelligence Officers for Hacking Offenses Related to the 2016 Election"
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/grand-jury-indicts-12-russian-intelligence-officers-hacking-offenses-related-2016-election

3. An extract from that DoJ press release:

       The indictment includes 11 criminal counts:

• Count One alleges a criminal conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States through cyber operations by the GRU that involved the staged release of stolen documents for the purpose of interfering with the 2016 president election;
• Counts Two through Nine charge aggravated identity theft for using identification belonging to eight victims to further their computer fraud scheme;
• Count Ten alleges a conspiracy to launder money in which the defendants laundered the equivalent of more than $95,000 by transferring the money that they used to purchase servers and to fund other costs related to their hacking activities through cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; and
• Count Eleven charges conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States by attempting to hack into the computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of elections.

4. Here is an interesting bit of text on the very bottom of the press release about this indictment from the Department of Justice:

There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity or knew they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the 2016 election.

So what's going on here?  Trump knew all about these Russian hackers sometime ago, and knew it would look bad, but that ultimately, there would be NO EVIDENCE of collusion.  The fact that this announcement was timed for TODAY, Friday, July 13, 2018 is very interesting, as Trump will be meeting with Putin on July 16.  

So while Trump backers might be moaning and wailing that this was timed to make Trump look bad, the truth is that he knew about this well in advance, and that this announcement was made TODAY, in advance of the meeting with Putin, to send Putin a message.   

5. There is more to come from this story, and while it seemingly looks bad for Trump, there is more to this story than we know.   It is interesting that in looking at the timeline for these hackers, most of their work was done between April and June of 2018.   Obama ordered the "stand down" of the National Security Council in their efforts to counter Russian hacking in August of 2018, after these attacks became known.     

So why order a "stand down" of cybersecurity aimed directly against Russian hacking when you know full well that Russian hackers are attacking your servers?   Something doesn't make sense here.  Logic dictates that efforts against hacking should become even more vigorous once you know an attack has occurred, not lessened...

One possible answer: perhaps the Obama administration was wanting these hackers to continue working unhindered for some odd reason.   For instance, to serve as later "proof" of collusion with Donald Trump.  

So many questions remain.  

P-B