It's Mueller Time, Con't

As Donald Trump continues his European trip and will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Finland, Special Counsel Robert Mueller just handed him a Siberian-sized diplomatic headache with almost exquisite timing.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking offenses related to the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

The 12, who are members of the GRU, a Russian intelligence agency, are accused of stealing usernames and passwords of volunteers in Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign, including its chairman John Podesta. They also hacked into the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in an operation starting around March 2016.

The charges include conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S., aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder money. They are accused of releasing the stolen emails on the web.

The announcement came only three days before President Donald Trump is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. 

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told reporters Friday that “I briefed President Trump about these allegations earlier this week. The president is fully aware of the department’s actions.”

Now I know that federal prosecutors are, as a rule, rat bastards.  But it's damn funny when they are actually rat bastards towards somebody who deserves to be screwed over by rat bastards.

Rosenstein said two separate Russian units of the GRU intelligence agency stole emails and information from Democrats and then disseminated it via online personas, DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0. He also said there’s no allegation in the indictment that any American was involved in the operation. 

“The object of the conspiracy was to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage releases of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election," the indictment said. 

The Russians masked their activities by using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to buy servers, register Internet domains and make other payments in the hacking operation, according to the indictment. It said the Russians also funded the operation in part by “mining” Bitcoin. 

With the charges, Mueller’s prosecutors have marked out another Internet pathway they say Russia used to influence the U.S. election. On Feb. 16, his prosecutors charged 13 Russians and three Russian entities they said were part of a broader effort to sow discord among U.S. voters through social media -- which they used to impersonate Americans, coordinate with unwitting U.S. activists and even plan rallies.

Trump told reporters in London Friday that he will “absolutely firmly” ask Putin about the finding by U.S. intelligence agencies that he authorized the campaign of interference. But he added, “I don’t think you’ll have any ‘Gee, I did it, I did it, you got me” confession.

Spoilers: The Russians did it, and Putin ordered it, and both Trump and Putin know it.  They hacked into the DNC and the Clinton campaign with the absolute intent to interfere in the 2016 election.  And Donald Trump and the GOP have regularly stated that they do not want this investigated because they directly benefited from this.

Mueller knows all that too.  This is pretty huge, as we now have Mueller flat out saying that a dozen GRU agents raided the Clinton campaign and stole information.  The Russians conducted an operation to attack our elections, which is what I told you guys 23 months ago.  At the very least Trump should cancel that meeting with Putin and start expelling Russian diplomats like baseballs in a pitching machine.

We're finally getting to the point where Trump won't be able to let the Mueller probe continue without permanent damage to himself.  Ryan Reilly at HuffPo breaks it down as the witch hunt sure has found a lot of actual practicing spellcasters, guys.

Here are the most crucial revelations the 29-page grand jury indictment brings to light.

• Chiefly, the indictment names names. The defendants were part of the Russian Federation’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU). GRU units 26165 and 74455, the indictment says, “conducted large-scale cyber operations to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.”
• The defendants, according to the indictment, were specifically involved in the effort to hack Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The Russians also “monitored the computers of dozens of [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] and DNC employees.”
• The Russians searched DCCC computers for terms like “hillary,” “cruz,” and “trump” and copied a folder titled “Benghazi Investigations.”
• “DCLeaks” ― a website launched in June 2016 to post hacked emails mostly targeting Democrats ― claimed to be run by “American hacktivists.” It wasn’t. The same computer that ran the DCLeaks Twitter account also managed a Twitter account called @BaltimoreIsWhr that posted images with the hashtag #BlacksAgainstHillary.
• Using the name “Guccifer 2.0,” the Russians told Trump associate Roger Stone ― identified in the indictment as “a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump” ― that it would be their “great pleasure” to help.

Oh and this bit:

• As the journalist Marcy Wheeler points out, the indictment also indicates that Russia had access to the Clinton team’s analytics, which could offer the Russians a guide to targeting voters as part of their effort to hurt Clinton’s campaign.

The Russians had Hillary's campaign battle plan.  They knew exactly what her campaign team was telling her.  You wanna bet they offered that info to Trump's guys?   Like say, this would be helpful info for formulating an attack on her in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, right?

This one is particularly fun:

• WikiLeaks ― named as “Organization 1” in the indictment ― worked with the Russians to time the release of hacked emails to have the greatest impact on the election. WikiLeaks thought Clinton had only a 25 percent chance of losing to Trump, but evidently thought “conflict between [Vermont Sen.] bernie [Sanders] and hillary” could help.

I told you WikiLeaks was a Russian front this two years ago as well.

But here's the money shot:

• Last but not least, on Aug. 15, 2016, a “candidate for the U.S. Congress” requested stolen documents from the Russians posing as Guccifer 2.0. They obliged, and “sent the candidate stolen documents related to the candidate’s opponent.” The congressional candidate in question hasn’t been identified.

You can absolutely bet that candidate was a Republican, and that the candidate in question is sweating bullets the size of tank rounds about right now.  I fully expect that candidate won that election in 2016, and is most likely in Congress today.  Now, it's possible that this particular member of Congress is one of the many Republicans who announced their retirement this year, but whoever that person is?

They are done.  That's collusion, guys. And I'm betting this person wasn't alone, either.  I bet there's a lot more people who requested info from the Guccifer 2.0 Russians, including stolen DNC emails. Suddenly that explains why so many Republicans are so hellbent on not investigating this Russian operation.

Stay tuned.  Mueller just opened this biggest can of worms so far in this investigation.

More is on the way.