Leftist Scum Democrats Trying To Squirm Out of Russia Allegations

[dudmuck]

The Democratic National Committee last year did not allow the FBI to physically inspect its machines, including servers. (Associated Press/File)

Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times - Thursday, July 27, 2017


Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel of the Russia election interference probe presents an opportunity for the FBI to inspect the Democratic Party computers that U.S. intelligence concluded were penetrated by Kremlin-directed hackers, cybersecurity analysts say.

The Democratic National Committee did not allow the FBI to physically inspect its machines, including servers. There is no public indication that any government agency has ever looked at the machines, prompting some former intelligence people to question the findings.

Instead, the DNC — and thus the FBI — relied heavily on the conclusions of counterhacking firm CrowdStrike, which the Democrats invited in to investigate the computers. CrowdStrike’s executive team has included former FBI officials close to Mr. Mueller. A major CrowdStrike investor is Google, whose founders work with Democrats.


The nongovernment access to the DNC machines spurred alternative theories from the political right, computer technologists and President Trump.

After former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress that the DNC had refused his agency’s assistance, Mr. Trump sent out a tweet: “Why did Democratic National Committee turn down the DHS offer to protect against hacks (long prior to election). It’s all a big Dem HOAX!”

The DNC defends how it handled the hacking.


“The DNC coordinated with the FBI and federal intelligence agencies and provided everything they requested, including copies of DNC servers,” Adrienne Watson, deputy director of DNC communications, told The Washington Times. “Conspiracy theories from the president suggesting otherwise are false.

“Our U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed that Russia hacked the DNC and attempted to interfere in our election. In spite of that, Donald Trump has resorted to tweeting false allegations about an attack on our democracy and turned a blind eye to the very man responsible for these attacks.”

Ms. Watson did not say whether the DNC still has possession of the hacked servers.

Russia conclusions and sent it to Mr. Mueller.

The Times asked Mr. Mueller’s spokesman if the special counsel would seek access to the DNC machines to settle the matter. The spokesman declined to comment.

‘Questionable political ties’

CrowdStrike has links to Mr. Mueller. Its president, Shawn Henry, ran the FBI’s cyber division when Mr. Mueller led the bureau. Steve Chabinsky was also a close aide to Mr. Mueller in the cyber division before arriving at CrowdStrike as general counsel. He later joined an international law firm.

Mr. Henry and Mr. Chabinsky were senior CrowdStrike officers when the DNC called on the company to investigate the hack, identify the culprits and patch vulnerabilities.

Most members of Congress have accepted the conclusions of the CIA and others of Russian hacking to interfere in the U.S. election by stealing and releasing Democratic Party emails. But some outside groups disagree. They are puzzled by the FBI’s lack of assertiveness last year to have its agents personally seize and inspect servers in one of the most famous cybercrimes ever.

Then under the direction of James B. Comey, a close friend of Mr. Mueller, the FBI accepted CrowdStrike’s forensic data to conclude that Russia’s two main intelligence services, the GRU and FSB, were responsible for the crime. Concurring were the National Security Agency, the CIA and the director of national intelligence — but not all of the 17 intelligence agencies participated.

Counterterrorism consultant Larry Johnson, a former CIA case officer, said there is evidence that the breach was an inside download onto a thumb drive.

“Bottom line, there is a lot that the FBI did not investigate and should have,” Mr. Johnson said. “It would be a step in the right direction for the FBI to finally handle this as a real investigation requiring real evidence, rather than defer to an outside firm with questionable political ties and motives.”

Said Tom Fitton, who runs Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog: “One would think the feds would want their own experts to examine the computer evidence. I’d be surprised if Mueller’s team isn’t taking a second look at this issue.”

Mr. Comey provided his most detailed explanation of the DNC lockout in March when he appeared before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and was questioned by Rep. Will Hurd, Texas Republican.

Mr. Hurd: So, Director, FBI notified the DNC early, before any information was put on WikiLeaks and when you have still been, never been given access to any of the technical or the physical machines that were, that were hacked by the Russians?

Mr. Comey: That’s correct, although we got the forensics from the pros [CrowdStrike] that they hired, which — again, best practice is always to get access to the machines themselves, but this — my folks tell me was an appropriate substitute.”

Why the FBI did not request a search warrant was not asked.

An alternative conclusion

Before President Obama left office, his intelligence chiefs issued a report on Jan. 6 that fingered Russia as the culprit. The agencies relied on CrowdStrike’s inspection as well as their own intelligence collections.

Not everyone agrees. A group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity issued a report July 24 concluding that someone penetrated the computers from inside the DNC.

“Forensic studies of ‘Russian hacking’ into Democratic National Committee computers last year reveal that on July 5, 2016, data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computers, and then doctored to incriminate Russia,” the group said in a memo to Mr. Trump.

“After examining metadata from the ‘Guccifer 2.0’ July 5, 2016 intrusion into the DNC server, independent cyber investigators have concluded that an insider copied DNC data onto an external storage device, and that ‘telltale signs’ implicating Russia were then inserted.”

Guccifer 2.0 was a fake name for Russian intelligence hackers, the U.S. says. They leaked sometimes embarrassing DNC emails as a cover for the Kremlin.

VIPS asserted that the leaked emails were “copied onto a storage device at a speed that far exceeds an internet capability for a remote hack.”

It said there were two distinct breaches: an inside leak to WikiLeaks sometime before the anti-secrecy website announced on June 2, 2016, that it had obtained DNC documents; and a leak on July 5, 2016, that was a “cut-and-paste job” that made it look like the material came from Russians when it did not.

“Why the FBI neglected to perform an independent forensics on the original ‘Guccifer 2.0’ material remains a mystery,” the VIPS report said.

In a direct message to Mr. Trump, the retired operatives said: “You may wish to ask CIA Director Mike Pompeo what he knows about this. Our own lengthy intelligence community experience suggests that it is possible that neither former CIA Director John Brennan nor the cyber-warriors who worked for him have been completely candid with their new director regarding how this all went down.”

Podesta didnt deny access to server.
The FBI was able to inspect it.

 

[kaz]

You're full of shit. Trump attacks everyone including the Russians. Get the partisan shill crap out of here

Right.
Find me a tweet and speech, anything that verifies Trump attacking Putin/Russia. All you got is Trump attacking Obama, Clinton, the FBI, the Judicial Department, the US court system, the Democrats, the media, Jeff Session. Comey, the US election system, blacks Hispanics, Muslims, Africa Haiti, Puerto Rico, Oprah, the UK, the mayor of London, etc: But Putin,,no.
Look, Obama was kinda a pussy in regards to Putin/Russia. But he did impose sanctions, took away three real estates of the Russian, and like Trump, told Putin Russia to stop interfering with our elections.
But has Trump been tougher on Russia than Obama? No.
Has Trump 'been much tougher on Russia' than Obama?
Above is a linky for you. Now, like every Trumpster, you will call it partisan. However, when Politifact named Obama the liar of the year, you guys started thread after thread after thread on Politifact's dubious award to Obama. So, why not prove my link wrong. It's that easy.

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[AZGAL]

During the second term of the Obama presidency there was a lackluster investigation into the Hillary Clinton email scandal. In addition, the FBI used a questionable company- Crowdstrike to analyze the supposed hacking of the DNC computers. All of this is explained in the article posted above.

 

[Tumblin Tumbleweed]

1) No, you said Trump colluded with the Russians
2) And no, Trump didn't say Russia didn't interfere, he said he didn't collude with them

Err, What's the difference? Orange or Orange campaign is semantics at this point. Maybe he didn't pull the trigger, but he hired the folks that did. The fish rots at the head...

Another baseless accusation

We shall see, won't we?

 

[AntonToo]

During the second term of the Obama presidency there was a lackluster investigation into the Hillary Clinton email scandal.

Comey's straight T-boning of Hillary 7 days before election wasn't enough luster for you???

That investigation pretty much cost her the election according to polling before and after Comey's announcement of re-opening the case.

In addition, the FBI used a questionable company- Crowdstrike to analyze the supposed hacking of the DNC computers. All of this is explained in the article posted above.

DNC hired Crowdstrike, not FBI. FBI didn't have access to servers but were provided all relevant logs and files.

 

[Crixus]

All this time, Democrats pursued the baseless story that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Now they're saying we were right! Russia did interfere in the election! And Trump was wrong!

1) No, you said Trump colluded with the Russians
2) And no, Trump didn't say Russia didn't interfere, he said he didn't collude with them

Hillary did collude with the Russians who paid her $145 million and got 20% of US uranium in return. She lied about Russian hackers and refused to turn over the DNC server to hide it. She smashed and bit washed her phones.

It was a get Trump campaign. Democrats have been pro-Russia all my life. Once a Democrat is back in the white house, they won't give a shit about Russia.

Democrats lie, it's what they do.

yeah, Trump is innocent as hell - he's hiding the shitstains in his drawers.

Funny how the guy who pulled it out of his ass is using the term "shitstains" (sic).

Seite has hours of posts about what’s going on in Trumps pants. He has it bad.

 

[AZGAL]

Hillary Clinton lost the election for many different reasons. I am eager to see a fine woman become the first US president. I never want it to be Hillary.