With just two days to go before a scheduled Summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and American President Donald Trump set to happen in Helsinki, Finland, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments against 12 Russian military officers for hacking, arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into interference in American elections by Russia.
It is the consensus of the American Intelligence community that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to manipulate the result to Donald Trump’s advantage. But President Trump insists the entire investigation is a “witch hunt”. The indictments unsealed on Friday charged 12 individuals with 11 criminal counts. In which case, a dozen more “witches” just went on the pyre. And it couldn’t be more fitting that the indictments fall on Friday the 13th.
“The indictment charges twelve Russian military officers by name for conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election,” Rosenstein told reporters gathered for a press conference just after noon, eastern time, at the Department of Justice.
The GRU is a Russian military intelligence agency, formerly known as the infamous KGB, the Russian counterpart to America’s CIA.
The timing of the indictments is no accident. As the world learned on Thursday, President Trump is not ruling out canceling U.S. military exercises, at Putin’s request. This as part of a NATO summit at which President Trump seemed intent on undermining America’s long standing alliances, drawing a bipartisan rebuke from the Congress. And the two presidents are set to meet in just days.
Asked about the timing of the indictment, Rosenstein said it was “a function of the collection of the facts, the evidence, and the law and a determine that it was sufficient to present the indictment at this time.” But Rosenstein also said, “Obviously it was important for the president to know what information we’ve uncovered because he’s got to make very important decisions for the country. So he needs to understand what evidence we have for an election interference.” He noted as well that he had briefed the President about the charges earlier in the week.
Related: More Evidence of Trump’s Obstruction of Justice
One former New York Times reporter made an insightful remark on the timing, tweeting that Mueller deserves “an A+” for his timing, and raising the question of whether Trump will dare to challenge Putin now, or (by inference) continue to take the Russian President at his word that Russia didn’t interfere with the election that put Trump into the American Presidency, over the findings of our own intelligence and law enforcement professionals.
Mueller gets an A+ for the timing of these indictments, right before Trump is to meet with Mueller.
Wondering whether Trump will have the courage to challenge Putin & say Putin is full of it when he denies that his government had any role in the hacks during the 2016 campaign. https://t.co/mwmuIxzApS
— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) July 13, 2018
However, Democrats including Chuck Schumer and Ted Liu have called on President Trump to out-right cancel his meeting with Putin as a result of the indictments.
In light of the charges against 12 GRU officers announced by Rod Rosenstein, @realDonaldTrump should cancel his meeting with Putin, who ordered the attack on the US. @POTUS shouldn't meet Putin until he accepts responsibility. And Trump should definitely not meet him alone. https://t.co/bP71DdGOHB
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 13, 2018
Among the most stunning revelation in the indictment were that the infamous hacker reportedly behind the hacking of the DNC, Guccifer 2.0, was a persona created by the GRU. The website DCleaks, used to leak documents hacked by the GRU, was also a GRU front. Documents were also released through Wikileaks.
Related: A Fake Sean Hannity Proved Wikileaks Is Undermining Trump Russia Probe
Given the fact that it has been proven that several people affiliated with President Trump have communicated with Wikileaks, as well as individuals linked to the Kremlin, this raises troubling questions which Mueller is well into investigating. Those Kremlin linked individuals included Russian lawyer Natalya Veslenitskya, who met with Trump’s son Don Trump Jr., Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Trump’s then Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, who is now in prison awaiting trial on related charges. And Roger Stone, a long time Republican operative who has been active in GOP operations since the Nixon era (and even has a tattoo of Nixon’s face) and is a close confidant of the President, has admitted communicating with Guccifer 2.0, now known to be a sock puppet persona of Russian military intelligence. Stone, who initially denied it, and Trump Jr. also communicated with Wikileaks.
All of this may have something to do with why Mueller added more prosecutors to his team earlier this month…
Featured image licensed via Wibbitz.
Sources:
- Ahead of Trump-Putin Summit, Rosenstein Announces Criminal Indictments Against 12 Russian Military Officers for 2016 Election Hacking | Common Dreams, July 13, 2018
- Trump won’t rule out ceasing military exercises if Putin asks | CNN, July 12, 2018
- Mueller indicts 12 Russians for DNC hacking as Trump-Putin summit looms | Politico, July 13, 2018
- Steven Greenhouse | Twitter, July 13, 2018
- Ted Lieu | Twitter, July 13, 2018
- Mueller team pushing for information on Roger Stone, WikiLeaks, sources say | ABC News, July 13, 2018
- Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin Than She Let On | New York Times, April 27, 2018
- Roger Stone’s Secret Messages with WikiLeaks | The Atlantic, February 27, 2018
- Report: Roger Stone communicated directly with WikiLeaks, despite denials | CBS News, February 28, 2018
- The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks | The Atlantic, November 13, 2017
- Special Counsel Indictment | Document Cloud, July 13, 2018
The post Mueller Brilliantly Trolls Trump & Putin — Burns 12 More ‘Witches’ Just Before Summit appeared first on ReverbPress.