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Justice Department Charges Russian Woman With Interference in Midterm Elections (washingtonpost.com)
The Justice Department on Friday charged a Russian woman for her role in a conspiracy to interfere with the 2018 U.S. election, marking the first criminal case prosecutors have brought against a foreign national for interfering in the upcoming midterms. From a report: Elena Khusyaynova, 44, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Prosecutors said she managed the finances of "Project Lakhta," a foreign influence operation they said was designed "to sow discord in the U.S. political system" by pushing arguments and misinformation online about a whole host of divisive political issues, including immigration, the Confederate flag, gun control, and the NFL national anthem protests. The charges against Khusyaynova came just as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned that it was concerned about "ongoing campaigns" by Russia, China and Iran to interfere with the upcoming Midterm elections and even the 2020 race -- an ominous warning that comes just weeks before voters head to the polls.
It's like pissing in to an ocean of piss.
But I think it has shown that memes do affect people. Maybe the people spreading the memes already made up their minds, but maybe not.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Clearly there's a 1st Amendment issue here, but only fascists want free speech now, right?
An interesting issue, however from the article she was charged not for her speech but for managing money of an organization, which intent was to meddle with US elections.
she failed to register with the DOJ as a foreign agent. she used foreign money to try and influence an election. those are both against federal law.
nothing to see here - move along
she failed to register and then used foreign money. both are against the law.
nothing to see here - move along
Free speech is not an absolute right. Among the many forms of speech not protected by the first amendment: perjury, libel, slander, false advertising, inciting violence, copyright infringement, obscenity and threats. For the record, freedom of religion doesn't mean you can perform human sacrifices or polygamy and the right to bear arms doesn't include nuclear weapons. All rights have limits.
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Charged with "sowing discord"??! Should have tried sowing IRC instead
It's not the Trump Justice Department, damnit, it's The United States Department of Justice. Believe it or not, despite his best efforts to piss all over every part of the Federal government to make it smell like him, Trump has not managed to corrupt, subvert, and destroy every single part of our government, and in this case, our top-level law enforcement, Herr Sessions notwithstanding. At least at some level we still have the Rule of Law here, at least for the moment.
but they register. she didn't.
nothing to see here - move along