Tag Archives: Russian meddling

national news

‘In this indictment’ becomes key phrase

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein delivered a bombshell of an announcement this week: the indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers, charging them with conspiring to hack into our U.S. election system.

Some who are friendly to Donald J. Trump are likely to attach themselves to a statement within Rosenstein’s announcement. It is that “no Americans have been charged in this indictment” with criminal activity.

Yes, the indictment takes dead aim at a dozen Russians. The president is meeting next week with Russia’s president. Trump vows to take the issue with Vladimir Putin. The Russian strongman will deny any involvement. The U.S. president can respond in any one of a number of ways. Many of us are concerned that he’s going to accept Putin’s lie and move on.

But … here’s the problem as I see it with Rosenstein’s announcement: “In this indictment” offers a specific reference to a singular criminal investigation.

Does the deputy AG suggest that with his statement about a lack of criminality by Americans — in this particular criminal complain — that there will be none coming as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation slogs toward its conclusion?

Let’s just wait this out, shall we?

national news

One more time: stop blaming Barack Obama

Donald J. Trump is trying to deflect attention from the glaring light of accountability.

He’s been firing off messages via Twitter that say that the Russian meddling in the 2016 election is President Barack H. Obama’s fault. Such as this:

These Russian individuals did their work during the Obama years. Why didn’t Obama do something about it? Because he thought Crooked Hillary Clinton would win, that’s why. Had nothing to do with the Trump Administration, but Fake News doesn’t want to report the truth, as usual!

He is right that it had “nothing to do with the Trump Administration.” It had everything to do with the Trump campaign.

That’s the point, Mr. President. Robert Mueller has obtained the indictments of 12 Russian military goons who conspired to influence the 2016 election outcome. Whether the previous administration did enough, if anything, to stop it is totally beside the point.

If the goons did what the indictments allege, then it’s on them.

The next big answer will determine whether the Trump campaign helped them in any way.

Right there is the total relevance of these indictments. None of this has a damn thing to do with the Obama administration.

national news, political news

Another clumsy diversion from POTUS

I believe they call it “projection,” where someone seeks to project blame on to someone else.

Check out this tweet from Donald J. Trump regarding the Department of Justice indictment against 12 Russians on charges they conspired to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration. Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?

What is the president trying to do here? I think I’ve got it.

He is trying to say that the Obama administration should have stopped the attack on our electoral system and that because the president didn’t act immediately, that it’s not the Trump campaign’s fault that the Russians interfered in our election.

Sorry, Mr. President. That doesn’t cut it.

The Trump campaign should have blown the whistle on the Russians in real time, the moment they came to whomever in the campaign with some dirty goods on Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Trumpsters didn’t act, either. Therefore, it’s on them.

The Trump campaign’s failure to act has led us to the appointment of a special counsel — Robert Mueller — who is seeking to slog his way through the thicket of evidence to determine whether there was collusion with the Russians.

Meanwhile, the president needs to stop trying to lay blame at the feet of others.

national news

Nothing ‘clear’ about collusion

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel is getting wa-a-a-a-y ahead of herself.

The RNC statement on the Justice Department indictments of 12 Russian military intelligence officers does make clear that the Russians meddled in our 2016 presidential election.

The RNC has joined a growing chorus of other intelligence and political officials who have acknowledged the obvious. Donald Trump, though, remains an increasingly lonely holdout.

However, McDaniel’s statement asserts that “it remains clear there was no collusion” between the Russians and the Trump campaign.

Hold on, Mme. Chairwoman. We do not know that … yet.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is continuing his work toward determining whether there was collusion. The president keeps asserting there was “no collusion.” That’s fine. Let him squawk all he wants.

It’s Mueller and his team, though, that will make the official determination about possible collusion. Or about possible obstruction of justice. Or about possible campaign finance violations. Or about possibly anything else that they might deem relevant to the conduct of the president and his campaign.

As for the RNC climbing aboard the Trump bandwagon/clown-car train, let’s settle down and await the outcome of this investigation.

national news

‘Witch hunt’ keeps reeling ’em in

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictments of 12 Russian military intelligence officials, accusing them of conspiring to meddle in our electoral system.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said he briefed the president “fully” on the grand jury indictment.

So, what does Donald John Trump do? He tells the world yet again today that Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling is a “rigged witch hunt.”

Mr. President, this is the farthest thing possible from a “witch hunt.”

It has produced indictments and confessions of wrongdoing; key Trump administration aides are now cooperating with the Mueller legal team. There has been tangible, demonstrable evidence that Russians have attacked the heart of our democratic system of government.

And the president keeps calling it a “witch hunt.”

Outrageous.

national news, political news

It’s the timing, man!

What are we to make of the timing of two key events in the 2016 presidential campaign?

Donald J. Trump in July of that year invited the Russian government to find the missing 30,000 e-mails that Hillary Rodham Clinton deleted from her file at the U.S. State Department.

Here is the GOP nominee making that invitation:

Then … according to an indictment handed down against 12 Russian military intelligence officers, on that very day they began hacking into the Democratic nominee’s files.

Coincidence? I think not. Neither does the legal team headed by special counsel Robert Mueller or the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller to the special counsel post.

I have believed since the beginning of this probe that Mueller’s so-called “witch hunt” is nothing of the sort.

Uncategorized

So … what about cyber security?

Those nagging, knotty questions about cyber security keep recurring.

Robert Mueller’s legal team has indicted 12 Russian goons for conspiring to meddle in our 2016 election. Vladimir Putin, the Russian strongman, likely ordered it. Our intelligence brass has concurred, as has the intelligence arms of our major allies.

Donald Trump hasn’t yet acknowledged the existential threat to our electoral system. What’s more, the Russians likely are seeking to screw up our 2018 midterm elections, too.

Back to a question I have posed before: Where is our cyber security reform?

About a decade ago, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, gave my former congressman, Mac Thornberry, a Clarendon Republican, the task of developing a way to protect our nation’s cyber network.

Thornberry’s all-GOP task force issued a detailed report. Then they were done. They all went back to doing whatever it is they do.

As the nation wrings its hands over cyber security and wonders how it is going to protect its secrets from foreign foes — such as Russia — I haven’t heard a sound from Rep. Thornberry!

Speaker Boehner spoke quite highly of Thornberry’s skill in leading this reform effort, if my memory serves me. Yes, Thornberry is a smart fellow.

But what in the world are we doing to deter the kind of manipulation and possibly decisive meddling that occurred in 2016? Have there been improvements to our cyber network to prevent future interference?

The fellow who used to represent me in the U.S. House of Representatives presumably led the effort to make us safer against such meddling. Didn’t he?

International news

Cancel the Putin meeting, Mr. President

I’ll weigh in with millions of other Americans who believe Donald Trump needs to call off his meeting next week in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin.

Don’t go there, Mr. President.

Here’s the deal. The special counsel has just indicted a dozen Russian military and intelligence officers for conspiring to meddle in our 2016 presidential election. Every high-level spook worth a damn says the same thing: The Russians sought to influence the election outcome; they hacked into Democrats’ computer systems and they attacked our electoral process.

So now the president wants to meet with Putin with no obvious agenda on the table. What is the purpose of this meeting? We don’t know. We do know that there is a gigantic elephant in the room: the meddling and now the indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump said he intends to bring the meddling up with Putin. Then he said “don’t expect anything” to come from it. The president doesn’t anticipate a “Perry Mason” moment where Putin admits to the meddling and pleads for mercy.

Trump’s campaign pledge to talk tough with other world leaders has wilted like a flower in the heat when it comes to Putin. He hasn’t challenged Putin any meaningful, tangible, demonstrable way for the manner in which he attacked our electoral system.

The longer he plays nice with Putin and the more he resists taking him to task directly and forcefully, the more culpable Trump looks to the rest of the world.

The meeting with Putin lacks the earmarks of an established agenda with goals clearly lined out. From all appearances, this meeting — on the heels of the NATO meeting — looks like another opportunity for Trump to grovel at Putin’s feet.

The indictments handed down by Mueller in his ongoing search for the truth about potential Russian collusion and obstruction of justice have made such a meeting a non-starter.

Call it off, Mr. President! Return home and start developing a strategy — for once — on how you intend to defend our system against future attacks from hostile powers … such as Russia!

International news, national news, political news

How will we know what comes from this meeting?

Donald J. Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Helsinki, Finland.

Trump says he’ll bring up the Russian meddling in our 2016 election. Now the question: What will Putin say in response?

How about the bigger question: How in the name of bilateral diplomacy are we ever going to know what Putin says?

The two men are going to meet one on one. No senior aides will be present. Only the presidents’ interpreters will be in the room.

Trump is a liar. Putin is a liar; Putin also is a killer, which gives me pause about the future of the interpreter Putin is bringing into the room with him. The Russian interpreter had better do his job correctly … if you get my drift.

Putin will deny meddling in the election. Trump will have the combined assessment of every intelligence agency at his command that has determined the Russians did attack our electoral system. Is the president going to throw that assessment back at his Kremlin colleague?

Oh, and now we have the indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officials. Robert Mueller has indicted them for their role in interfering in our election. This is a big one, folks. But do you know what? It could get even bigger!

How? Mueller well might be preparing to indict the Americans who were complicit in what the Russians allegedly did.

But … the U.S. president will meet with the Russian president. The proverbial elephant in the room will be the meddling matter. If only we could trust our president to tell us the truth about what he discusses with his Russian counterpart. Vladimir Putin most certainly isn’t to be trusted.

I fear about the certain lack of trust in our president, as well.

national news

To what end will this investigation lead?

I’ve spent a good part of my day sitting in my study. My TV has been tuned to a cable news channel, which has been broadcasting a congressional hearing with a single witness: FBI agent Peter Strzok.

My question is this: For what purpose are they conducting this all-day marathon?

Strzok used to serve on Robert Mueller’s team that is looking at Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Then he and another agent, Lisa Page, were fired. Mueller canned them when it became known that they had exchanged anti-Trump messages via e-mail. Congressional Republicans allege a deep bias against the president. They are contending that the alleged bias taints the Mueller probe. They are seeking to undermine Mueller’s probe.

So, where is this investigation going? The U.S. House Oversight Committee is going to issue some kind of report. Then what? Suppose the report determines Mueller’s team has been biased and has conducted a corrupt investigation into whether the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russians who meddled in our 2016 election. Are they going to recommend an end to the probe?

Strzok has defended himself fiercely. He said he and the FBI did everything “by the book.”

I keep circling back to the man at the top of the investigation, Robert Mueller.

I remain quite convinced that Mueller’s integrity is intact. He is a former FBI director. He is known to be a meticulous lawyer. Mueller has assembled a top-tier legal team to probe deeply into the myriad issues surrounding the Trump campaign.

As for the president’s assertion — backed up by his GOP allies in Congress — that the Russia probe is being dominated by “13 Democrats,” this flies in the face of the fact that Mueller is a life-long Republican; so is the man who appointed him, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein; and … so is the man Trump fired as FBI director, James Comey.

Trump accuses Mueller of launching a “witch hunt” against him. I strongly suspect another type of “witch hunt” is under way. It ‘s occurring in Congress and the target is Mueller, who the GOP is targeting because he is inching closer to the White House in his probe into what happened during the 2016 presidential campaign.

House Oversight Committee Republicans have one of Mueller’s former team members — Peter Strzok — in their sights.

Where in the world is this congressional probe heading? I think it will end up in the ditch, right along with the Benghazi probe.