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Clinton Campaign: Russia Leaked Emails to Help Trump (washingtonpost.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the Washington Post: A top official with Hillary Clinton's campaign on Sunday accused the Russian government of orchestrating the release of damaging Democratic Party records in order to help the campaign of Republican Donald Trump -- and some cyber security experts in the U.S. and overseas agree. The extraordinary charge came as some national security officials have been growing increasingly concerned about possible efforts by Russia to meddle in the election, according to several individuals familiar with the situation.

Late last week, hours before the records were released by the website Wikileaks, the White House convened a high-level security meeting to discuss reports that Russia had hacked into systems at the Democratic National Committee... Officials from various intelligence and defense agencies, including the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, attended the White House meeting Thursday, on the eve of the email release.

Clinton's campaign manager told ABC News "some experts are now telling us that this was done by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump." Donald Trump's son later responded, "They'll say anything to be able to win this."

19 of 769 comments (clear)

  1. Here's more credible evidence of Trump-Russia ties by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Trump actually lobbied to change the Republican platform to favor Russia over the Ukraine -- one of seven strange Russia connections clearly documented by Josh Marshall.

    "Post-bankruptcy Trump has been highly reliant on money from Russia, most of which has over the years become increasingly concentrated among oligarchs and sub-garchs close to Vladimir Putin," for example. And then there was the "secret financing" for a Soho real estate project from Russia and Kazakhstan. Even Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, "spent most of the last decade as top campaign and communications advisor for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian Prime Minister and then President whose ouster in 2014 led to the on-going crisis and proxy war in Ukraine."

    I haven't been following Trump's campaign closely, but his ties to Russia are really clear.

  2. Always the same with Hillary... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why does Hillary always claim some sort of big conspiracy every time she gets caught doing something? Perhaps, she should just concentrate on keeping her nose clean to begin with.

    1. Re:Always the same with Hillary... by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You do know that everything in your post is a lie, right? Not necessarily your lie, if you are just a useful idiot.

      The Republicans said things that you lefties have interpreted as admissions, but they were just statements of fact, and occasionally of fortuitous joy.

      Pull some videos and read the actual words that were said, not the words that were reported.

      Hillary ran obstruction on the investigation from day one. And now she's complaining that it took 5 years. Hmm. If only there had been some way to get this over with before the election year...

      And you do know that the whole email thing came from this investigation, right? You may have heard the FBI director on TV recently where he described what a prosecutor needed to prove to secure convictions for several sections of US code relating to espionage and state secrets, and then he described that the FBI had found evidence sufficient to prove all of those elements. He also told Congress that she perjured herself, but since they hadn't specifically asked for that investigation, they are going to sit on it for another year.

      That sounds like something new, and also something that incriminated Hillary.

      You sound like Black Lives Matter, bitching that a conspiracy of cops is making the streets unsafe for criminals to ply their trades.

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
  3. Wag the dog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The idea wasn't to help the Trump campaign - it was to demonstrate that Clinton was chosen as the nominee before any elections were held. Neither candidate is acceptable for President of the United States. Both have demonstrated a lengthy history of poor judgment, failure to take accountability for their actions, and a complete lack of moral compass. Based on recent business dealings, it appears Trump thinks "I've put too much money into this project" is an acceptable reason for not paying amounts HE AGREED to. And Clinton appears to believe she's above the employment agreements millions of Americans enter into every day - don't bring your own device is an easy rule to follow. Despite Clinton not being charged, she treated the State communications requirements like they meant nothing and disrespect for rule of law seems to be a primary motivation for the recent acts of violence. The young man who was arrested in the Baton Rouge police killings didn't fit the typical narrative - no mental illnesses or disorders, irrational hatred of religious groups, or other "radical" behavior. By all appearances, he reached a breaking point where the current situation was no longer compatible with his moral system and made the most powerful (whether it was effective is debatable) statement he could. If police officers are going to execute innocent people in cold blood, perhaps an innocent person executing a police officer would create a dialogue about the increasing militarization of our police forces.

  4. Re:well well well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    to me, unless you can show the integrity of the original messages was compromised, then the "who did it" does not matter as much as "what the emails say".

    Then you are a fool and you deserve to be ruled by Putin / Trump.

    If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.

    Look it up. Lies by omission are the easiest ones. All he needs to have done is a) hidden the emails which help Clinton and b) hidden the ones which hinder Trump and c) kept the ones which guarantee his control over Trump.

    The accusation is extremely serious and a big risk. It's probably true because if they get found out that it isn't they lose big time. Putin has every reason to prefer a buffoon like Trump over Clinton. There's also pretty good evidence he's interfering with European politics, so why shouldn't he do the USA too? Still, this needs better evidence and confirmation than we have now.

  5. Why would Putin fear Clinton? by drnb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Putin has every reason to prefer a buffoon like Trump over Clinton.

    Why would Putin fear Clinton? He has beaten her repeatedly in the arena of foreign policy. What was her foreign policy experience prior to becoming secretary of state? She accompanied Bill on some trips and visited hospital and schools with the other wives while the Bill and the other actual players met elsewhere and discussed the issues and problems of the day?

    I'm not trying to be sexist, women are perfectly capable at doing the job be it SOS or POTUS, but this particular person's experience was PR fluff stuff not actual foreign policy. When that crisis happened on the other side of the world and the phone rang at 3am she answered the phone and passed it to Bill saying "its for you".

    She was made Secretary of State in 2008 for one and only one reason. To get the Clinton political machine behind Obama, to bind her future to his. This "machine" still controlled the Democratic party, and still does to this day as we saw with Sanders. To offer her something credible for her resume for her next attempt at the office of POTUS as a consolation promise. She was not selected because of her foreign policy experience, there was none, and her performance indicates on the job training didn't help her much.

    She really is in the same league as Trump with respect to foreign policy, neither to be feared by the Russians.

    1. Re:Why would Putin fear Clinton? by chipschap · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why would Putin fear Clinton? He has beaten her repeatedly in the arena of foreign policy.

      That's the part I don't get. Putin has to know from experience that he can walk all over Hillary. You may call Trump clownish but the thing is that clowns are unpredictable, and in the world of international politics, unpredictable can mean dangerous. Wouldn't Putin want someone whose actions he could predict and whom he would easily out-maneuver?

    2. Re:Why would Putin fear Clinton? by YooHoo2U2 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Follow the money:

      "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," Trump's son, Donald Jr., told a real estate conference in 2008, according to an account posted on the website of eTurboNews, a trade publication. "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."

      https://www.washingtonpost.com...

    3. Re:Why would Putin fear Clinton? by gumbi+west · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Putin has stated that he wants to destabilize/topple NATO. Trump has a pretty clear goal of destabilizing/weakening/ending NATO. It's really not that hard to see.

    4. Re:Why would Putin fear Clinton? by drnb · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Trump can't even run a business.

      I think that is political BS. IF I understand things correctly each project is usually a different corporation. Different investors for different projects, one failed project won't impact other projects, a failure doesn't impact anyone personally, etc. Basically look up all the reasons you want an S-Corp or LLC rather than a sole proprietorship for your own business. I think his bankruptcies are several of these projects failing. If only several projects failed out of dozens he's doing pretty well.

      ... and while Trump is busy making a mess of the US economy ...

      Compared to the Clinton era prosperity which was the smoke and mirrors of the Internet Bubble, which began bursting as Bill was leaving office? Like the relaxing of home loan standards that began under the Clinton administration, at their encouragement to help underdeveloped communities, that led in part to the banking crisis? Like the current economy that after how many years under Obama still needs massive stimulus and near zero interest rates to barely limp along? I'm not endorsing Trump or anything but lets not pretend the last couple Democratic administrations knew what they were doing.

    5. Re:Why would Putin fear Clinton? by drnb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Trump can't even run a business.

      I think that is political BS.

      No, it's not. He ran a casino into the ground. A casino? Otherwise known as a license to print money.

      Only casinos in areas people like to visit. Atlantic City turned out not to be so, and it wasn't just him. Again, are we talking about more than a few projects out of dozens.

      Did you miss how he claimed a tax exemption that is only available to people whose income is less than $500k. His "wealth" is smoke and mirrors.

      One year's annual income is not one's wealth. Wealth includes other years. Wealth includes assets you own but have not sold yet. Does he exaggerate his wealth, probably, but you haven't really shown us any real data on that subject.

      His business skills are mediocre (his investments in Manhattan basically tracked the market),

      Do you realize how meaningless that statement is? Of course a real estate investment tracked the market, do you think maybe the timing of an entry and an exit might be relevant? IF, and I don't know one way or the other but you seem not to either, he timed it well then that is an indication of business skill. You know, like those handful of CEOs who pay very close attention to various macroeconomic indicators and slow hiring when they say a bear market may be coming and start hiring in the depths of a bear market when those indicators start saying a bull market may be coming. If one can time things better than random guesses that is a business skill. Get back to us with your analysis of his timing, thanks for your research in advance.

      No, everything Trump does is aimed at benefiting him personally ...

      Hey if you are going to argue he is a narcissist I'm not one to argue against that, but what major party presidential candidate is not? The last one may have been Jimmy Carter, and he wasn't very good at the job. He is however an excellent human being and great role model outside of the political realm. Maybe that's related to his presidential shortcomings?

    6. Re:Why would Putin fear Clinton? by whoever57 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One year's annual income is not one's wealth. Wealth includes other years.

      Yeah, except that he claimed that exemption for multiple years.

      Do you realize how meaningless that statement is? Of course a real estate investment tracked the market, do you think maybe the timing of an entry and an exit might be relevant?

      The man was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he bought some buildings and his overall investments were no better than if he had randomly bought and sold them. He didn't beat the market in some way that isn't obvious due to "timing".

      Does he exaggerate his wealth, probably, but you haven't really shown us any real data on that subject.

      Wow, you really are blind to any evidence that he isn't what he says he is, aren't you? How about the fact that he hasn't published his tax returns? Clearly, he is hiding something and I doubt that it is that he is wealthier than he makes out.

      Hey if you are going to argue he is a narcissist

      No, I am not going to claim that he is a narcissist. I am going to claim that he is a racist bigot, who is only in the campaign to profit from it.

      And, yes, there is proof that he is racist. Go back some years in his business dealings and you will see concrete evidence. But you won't do that, because you don't want to find it. It's much more comfortable to be ignorant.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  6. I have seen some crazy responses here by HBI · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Putin allowed these to be released to poke Obama in the eye. No more, no less. The fact that they feed into a long standing story of dishonesty and fraud on the part of the Clintons is incidental. He saw maximum value to let them go right before the DNC, because he knows, like I do, that these e-mails aren't going to decide the election. It wasn't worth holding them until November, as they'd be ineffectual then with all the mud flying in the last couple of weeks.

    They are, however, one of hundreds of data points that will decide this election.

    He doesn't "support Trump" at all. He'd prefer a HRC in charge - less risk, but he doesn't believe he could turn a US election anyway with any of his tools available. Those who believe otherwise are conspiracy theorists.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  7. Re:well well well by whoever57 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Indeed. If the truth hurts you, the problem isn't with who reveals it, the problem is with you. And Hillary Clinton will do anything she possibly can to obfuscate that fact.

    The problem is the asymmetry here. What do you think a cache of RNC emails would show?

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  8. Re:Email Smeemail by quantaman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Story about how she received bribes for allowing Russia to buy 20% of the USA uranium production. She clearly stated how she wouldn't take foreign donations to her foundation while at state, would ask for a waiver to do it if it came up, and would disclose if it happened. She took the bribe, didn't ask for a waiver, didn't disclose it, and failed to report it on her taxes and had to amend them years later after she was caught. She showed "Intent" in hiding the donations because they were bribes.

    Did you link to the right article? I see some bad things for her, but not the stuff you were talking about.

    1) The foundation wasn't supposed to accept foreign government donations, she didn't. Though she may have taken donations from people who had connections to foreign companies with significant government ties.

    2) The foundation was supposed to publicly disclose all the donations to the foundation, apparently this guy who donated, a Canadian, reported on his tax form that he made a bunch of donations that the foundation didn't publicly disclose. I don't know if this was a mistake, deliberate, or some kind of misunderstanding.

    3) During this period Bill Clinton got a $500k fee to speak to a Russian bank.

    4) There's nothing I saw there about hers or the foundation's taxes. I have no idea where you got the idea she hid something on her taxes.

    All the bad looking stuff is Bill Clinton, who ran the foundation, accepting donations or work from people who had a connection to businesses who might be affected by the State Department.

    As for "approving something the State Department wouldn't normally even consider". She was only one of multiple people who had a say on the approval. If anything her fighting it would have been the more unusual action.

    I'm not sure why people bring up her email scandal.

    Because it's the only scandal, where after a critical investigation, there's evidence that she really did do something wrong.

    Her problem is most politicians do everything they can to avoid the appearance of impropriety. The Clintons on the other hand, Bill in particular, don't really seem to care about the appearance because they think they'll be attacked regardless.

    So you get stuff like this where Bill Clinton is constantly dealing with a bunch of people he should really be avoiding. I don't think Hillary was biased when it came to doing her job, but it does lead to some fishy optics.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  9. Re:well well well by swb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That they were terrified of the loudmouth Donald Trump and grew increasingly terrified as he completely sabotaged their own attempt at coronating their own hand-picked stooge to run against Hillary in 2016.

    The only difference between them and the Democrats? The RNC failed to derail Trump and the DNC and Hillary Clinton vociferously denied colluding to railroad Bernie Sanders.

    The difference is also in expectations. Everyone *expects* the RNC and its major donors to guide a hand-picked favorite son into November. It's who they are. They don't operate under ideological banner that promotes free, open and fair elections -- they want to gut the Voting Rights Act, for example.

    The Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, promote themselves as the guarantors of democracy, extending and protecting the franchise and voice of all people. Which is now being exposed for what it was all along -- a sanctimonious fiction and a bill of goods. Instead they spent their time promoting their own handpicked favorite and undermined a worthy and successful challenger.

    I try not to buy into the Hillary is corrupt meme. But at this point, there's just too much evidence she's conniving and fundamentally not honest. And I'm not a Trump supporter, but I do have a certain admiration for the way he eviscerated the Republican party.

  10. Contaminated content by seven+of+five · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If the source of the emails is a Russian hacker, who's to say that any of the content is genuine? What if some of it were doctored? Source can't be trusted.

  11. Re:Cheesy 80's movie excuse by Sarten-X · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's not an excuse. It's an explanation. Those are different things.

    The problem with the emails is their source. WikiLeaks has shown great interest in anti-US material, and comparatively very little interest in anything that disparages Russia. Their bias has been analysed pretty thoroughly, and it calls their motives into question. That, in turn, means we must question the integrity of anything they release.

    For example, consider the differences in the edited and un-edited versions of the Collateral Murder video. The raw footage shows a pretty typical battle, where a group of men, some of them armed, are loitering in an area where American troops have been under attack all morning. The edited version shows a group of men, and highlights that two of them are not armed, and in a slow-motion frame comparison, shows that one of the apparent weapons was actually a telephoto camera lens, then shows them being attacked by American fire. There are numerous other differences.

    There's a huge difference in context between the two versions, which Assange himself has said was intentional for "political effect". In the raw video, the soldiers' actions are justified, though mistaken. In the edited version, they're portrayed as ruthless killers intentionally targeting civilians.

    Now WikiLeaks has released a bunch of emails. That's great, but we must ask: what editing has been done here? Did they (or their possibly-Russian source) strip out any emails that conflict with the "DNC is corrupt" narrative? Are the emails signed? Is it possible or probable that some of the damning emails edited or completely faked?

    These sorts of questions should be raised every time a leak is made public. The leakers always have an agenda, and it may not necessarily be to "inform the public".

    With all that in mind, consider again what's being said. There is no denial of the emails' existence, and little discussion of the emails' content. Instead, at this point there's just a request to consider the trail the emails have followed, and the impact that has on their credibility.

    --
    You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  12. Re:well well well by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ahem: "Almost immediately after her resignation, Wasserman-Schultz was given a position within the Clinton campaign as an honorary chair. " http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

    So no she was not thrown under the bus. She did her job and was rewarded.