I've been away so apologies if I missed this, but I read the Mueller indictment of the evil Russians and I was left confused as to exactly what law they violated? I believe the indictment says they committed "fraud on the United States?" Silly me, I would have thought that might be something a defense contractor might get charged with for fake billing. Perhaps I just didn't read carefully enough, but if shitposting, trolling and using an anonymous account to make political commentary are crimes, we are going to need a lot more FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors. They were not even accused of posting false stuff. It was said to be disparaging. How is that different from CNN, the NYT and WashPost coverage of Trump? Because they are media and can hide behind the First Amendment? OK then, what about Soros? Half the leftwing trolls here are probably getting a check from him. Plenty of foreign governments...cough Israel... spend big money on "public affairs" campaigns, DC speak for propaganda campaigns that are not all that different from what Mueller charged the Russians with. I realize Mueller has never been the sharpest tool in the shed but surely someone on his staff could see this is the slipperiest of slippery slopes.
I was wondering if much of that indictment would withstand a motion for lack of specificity and or failure to state and offense with respect to some or all of the defendants. Yes.. stealing someones identify may be a crime... but posting disparaging remarks on the internet? And that count respect the defrauding of the US... that seemed tailor made for a special prosecutor prosecuting Hilllary, the dnc, her lawfirm, steele and the fbi agents behind the FISA warrant.... not an St. Petersburg based troll factory.
Ex-workers at Russian ‘troll factory’ trust U.S. indictment In this image taken from video on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, Marat Mindiyarov, a former internet troll, speaks to journalists in St.Petersburg, Russia. While Russian officials have denigrated a U.S. indictment charging 13 Russians with meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential vote through an elaborate social media campaign, former Internet trolls employed at the same facility see them as well-grounded. Mindiyarov, a former commentator at the Internet Research Agency, said his own experience at the â\u0088\u009A¢â\u0080\u009A\u0082 \u0308â\u0089\u0088\u0093troll factoryâ\u0088\u009A¢â\u0080\u009A\u0082 \u0308¬\u009D makes him trust the U.S. charges. "I believe that that's how it was and that it were them," he told The Associated Press. .(AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov) XAZ109 Associated Press Published: February 19, 2018 Updated: February 19, 2018 at 08:53 PM Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — While Russian officials scoff at a U.S. indictment charging 13 Russians with meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, several people who worked at the same St. Petersburg, Russia, "troll factory" say they think special counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal charges are well-founded. Marat Mindiyarov, a former commenter at the innocuously named Internet Research Agency, says the organization’s Facebook department hired people with excellent English skills to sway U.S. public opinion through an elaborate social media campaign. His own experience at the agency makes him trust the U.S. indictment, Mindiyarov told the Associated Press. "I believe that that’s how it was and that it was them," he said. The federal indictment issued Friday names a businessman linked to President Vladimir Putin and a dozen other Russians. It alleges that Yevgeny Prigozhin — a wealthy restaurateur dubbed "Putin’s chef" — paid for the Internet operation that created fictitious social media accounts and used them to spread tendentious messages. The aim of the factory’s work was either to influence voters or to undermine their faith in the U.S. political system, the 37-page indictment states. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that while the indictment focuses on "Russian nationals," it gives "no indication that the Russian government was involved in this in any way." Peskov reasserted that Moscow did not interfere in the U.S. election. Mindiyarov failed the language exam needed to get a job on the Internet Research Agency’s Facebook desk, where the pay was double that of the domestic side of the factory. The sleek operation produced content that looked as if it were written by native English speakers, he said. "These were people with excellent language skills, interpreters, university graduates," he said. "It’s very hard to tell it’s a foreigner writing because they master the language wonderfully." The English test he took asked for a writing sample about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the U.S. presidential vote, Mindiyarov recalled. "I wrote that her chances were high and she could become the first female president," he told the AP. Mindiyarov said he took a job at the troll factory in late 2014 because he was unemployed and curious. At the time, about 400 people occupied four floors of an office building and worked 12-hour shifts, he said. Most of the operation focused on the separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia, not political races in the West, he said. The trolls received their wages in cash and operated in teams as they tried to foment public interest with fake discussions, according to Mindiyarov. After only a couple of months, Mindiyarov quit in 2015. He says he hated the work. "The world in those comments was divided into black and white: America was bad, Putin was good," he said. "They praised whatever had to do with Putin and criticized anything related to America, ‘gay’ Europe, and so on. That was the principle of the work." Along with producing social media supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy and disparaging Clinton, the Internet Research Agency purchased online advertisements using identities stolen from Americans and staged political rallies while posing as American political activists, the indictment alleges. The agency also paid people in the U.S. to promote or ridicule the candidates, the document states. "All of the trolls knew that it’s Prigozhin who stands behind this all," Mindiyarov said. "But nobody had any evidence." He said that the employees disliked Prigozhin, in part because he didn’t set up a cafeteria or canteen in the troll factory building even though he owned a sprawling catering business. "People had to bring food boxes from home," Mindiyarov said. "Prigozhin did not treat the trolls well. He could at least feed them." While the U.S. indictment mentioned 13 people, many more must have been involved in the effort, said Lyudmila Savchuk, another former worker at the St. Petersburg workshop. "Here they laugh about the news that 13 people could influence the elections in the U.S., but there were many more people doing that," she said. "These technologies are unbelievably effective." She added that she learned how effective the troll farm’s work was when she saw regular people sharing opinions and information that she knew were planted by trolls. "They believed it was their own thoughts, but I saw that those thoughts were formed by the propagandists," she said.
Plenty of cement heads on here bought the bullshit...hook, line and sinker. I remember Jem pushing some nonsense that Hillary was going to start WW3. Now he’s trying to cover his ass for being such a tool and wondering what the bid deal is.
I am taking all this at face value. My question is how is it illegal? Dishonest, unethical, a violation of international norms perhaps, but is it a crime?
Besides aiding and abating a sexual predator for decades, Hillary also stole the nomination from Bernie, didn't think it was illegal to getting questions prior to a presidential debate, used an 'off-government' server solely to conceal the deals she was doing to enrich herself, an ambassador died because of her incompetence, destroyed 33K emails after being told to keep them by the Justice Department...etc... Being as stupid and crooked as she is, there is a possibility she could have started WW3 or as bad, continue with her predecessor's down the liberal road to total economic and social decimation of this great country. We got very lucky. Liberals should never be allowed to be in power again. Look at history and see how many examples of liberalism destroying entire societies.
In regard to the fraud on the American government etc, Mueller is working some constructed issue related to the individuals allegedly misrepresenting their purpose in applying for a tourist visa. Allegedly they said they wanted to come here for personal reasons but then did intelligence gathering/political stuff, whatever. He is actually just getting a whole basketful of scalps in an easy manner. It takes nothing to get an indictment and if the indictment is flawed then he know that they can't/won't show up to contest it or to defend themselves. So it is an easy shot for him. And everyone goes ga-ga over over what a ballsbusting job Mueller is doing, when if fact it is pussy stuff. As discussed, the cases against fusion, steel, and camp Hillary for importing and paying for foreign agents is massively stronger than for the ruskies clowning around on facebook while here on a tourist visa. Note also, that the indictments definitely did not allege that the ruskies were Russian state agents so apparently he does not have enough to charge them with espionage or acting as an agent for a foreign government without registration. He is basically just doing a tag team routine with the lefty media where you get everyone hyped up to believe that all things Russian are illegally and then you just demonstrate that some Russians have been here. Steele is the on who will take the hit for this type of thing because he becomes harder and harder to overlook while lesser crimes are leading to indictment. And Steele knows about the the dnc connection, he knows about the Hillary connection, he knows about Bruce Ohrs wife because they were both working on the dossier, he knows about the FBI, and he knows that the FBI does not want to prosecute him because he will confirm that the FBI was working with the press in releasing dossier information, and that the FBI knew that he was too, and he knows that the he talked with the FBI at the time they submitted the FISA application and that they knew that there it was uncorroborated/sp. It's all gonna blow up on them though. But if Mueller wants to klutz indicting folks for lesser stuff, fine, because it keeps the focus on others who should be prosecuted so similar shady stuff. More to come. Especially as Mannaforts attorney begins to do discovery on all the players to build the case that it is a political witch-hunt. And not to forget, that includes discovery into Susan Rice and the Intel Agencies.
I didn’t want Hillary but pushing a story that she was going to start WW 3 is laughable but you guys bought it and pushed it.. You’re a Scarecrow so what do you expect.