Alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections

 Alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections 

Date	2016
Interest of	7th floor group, Father Andrew, Naz Durakoğlu, Fazze, Mark Hackard, Avril Haines, Stefan Halper, Deborah Haynes, Aaron Maté, George Papadopoulos, Joy Reid

The Russian government allegedly interfered in the 2016 United States presidential election in order to increase political instability in the United States and to damage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign by bolstering the candidacies of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein. A January 2017 assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) stated that Russian leadership favoured presidential candidate Trump over Clinton, and that Russian president Vladimir Putin personally ordered an "influence campaign" to harm Clinton's chances and "undermine public faith in the US democratic process".

On 7 October 2016, the ODNI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) jointly stated that the US Intelligence Community was confident that the Russian Government directed recent hacking of emails with the intention of interfering with the US election process. According to the ODNI's report on 6 January 2017, the Main Intelligence Directorate had hacked the servers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the personal Google email account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and forwarded their contents to WikiLeaks. Although Russian officials have repeatedly denied involvement in any DNC hacks or leaks, there is strong forensic evidence linking the DNC breach to known Russian operations. In January 2017, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified that Russia also interfered in the elections by disseminating fake news promoted on social media. On 13 July 2018, 12 Russian military intelligence agents were indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for allegedly hacking the email accounts and networks of Democratic Party officials.

On 31 October 2016, President Barack Obama warned Vladimir Putin via the "red phone" to stop interfering or face consequences. In December 2016, Obama ordered a report on hacking efforts aimed at US elections since 2008, while US Senators called for a bipartisan investigation. President-elect Trump rejected claims of foreign interference and said that Democrats were reacting to their election loss. On 29 December 2016, the Obama Administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats, denied access to two Russia-owned compounds, and broadened existing sanctions on Russian entities and individuals. More sanctions were imposed against Russia by the Trump administration in March 2018, and on 6 April 2018, the Trump administration brought another new round of sanctions against Russia, targeting several oligarchs and high-ranking Russian officials. In June 2018, the United States Department of the Treasury implemented new sanctions on several Russian entities and officials in connection to cyberattacks by Russia related to the 2016 election interference. Several countries in the European Union have also pursued a sanctions regime against Russia, accusing the state of supporting terrorism and interfering in their own elections.

Investigations about Russian influence on the election include a counter-intelligence investigation by the FBI, hearings by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, and inquiries about possible links and financial ties between the Kremlin and Trump associates, notably targeting Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Roger Stone. On May 9, 2017, Trump dismissed FBI Director James Comey, citing in part dissatisfaction with suspicions of his presidency because of "this Russia thing". On 17 May, Deputy Attorney General, and Acting Attorney General for this investigation Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to oversee the investigation.

In a testimony on 13 February 2018, before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the heads of the top six American intelligence agencies unanimously reaffirmed Russian interference. Three sources familiar with Trump's thinking told CNN he remains unconvinced that Russia interfered because it suggests he did not win the election solely on his own merits.

As of June 2018, at least 11 Trump associates or officials have admitted to having contacts with Russians during the campaign or transition.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Corporate media/Mendacity	“More and more we are seeing narratives about cyber-threats being used to advance reports of “attacks” and “acts of war” being perpetrated which, as far as the public is concerned, consist of nothing other than the authoritative assertions of confident-sounding media pundits. There was a recent NBC exclusive which was co-authored by Ken Dilanian, who is an actual, literal CIA asset, about the threat of hackers working for the Iranian government. The alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections is now routinely compared to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, despite no hard, verifiable evidence that that interference even took place ever being presented to the public.”	Caitlin Johnstone	11 August 2018
Charles Schumer	“"Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you," Schumer told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in response to the president-elect challenging allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. "So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this," Schumer added. "What do you think the intelligence community will do if they were motivated to," Maddow wondered. "I don’t know, but from what I am told intelligence officials are very upset with how [Trump] has treated them and talked about them," Schumer replied. "Do we think he has an agenda to try to dismantle parts of the intelligence community? I mean this form of taunting hostility," she said. "Let me tell you. Whether you’re a super liberal Democrat or a very conservative Republican, you should be against dismantling the intelligence community," Schumer noted.”	Charles Schumer	2017

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Hillary Clinton Did It	Article	20 May 2022	WSJ Editorial Board	Appearing as a witness in John Durham’s trial of Michael Sussmann, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, Robby Mook, says she personally approved a plan to give a false 'Trump, Russia' claim to the news media.
Document:It's official: Russiagate is this generation's WMD	article	23 March 2019	Matt Taibbi
Document:Julian Assange exposed the crimes of powerful actors, including Israel	blog post	19 April 2019	Alison Weir	Julian Assange has recently been honoured with the 2019 Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers & Defenders of the Right to Information and Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire has nominated him for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.
Document:Media silent on dismissal of DNC suit against Julian Assange	Article	2 August 2019	Oscar Grenfell	Judge Koeltl further undermined the claims of the Trump administration, the Democrats and the media that Julian Assange is a “hacker,” undeserving of First Amendment protections. In other words, the attempt to extradite Assange to the US and prosecute him is a frontal assault on the US Constitution and press freedom.
Document:Mueller Scrambles To Limit Evidence After Indicted Russians Actually Show Up In Court	Article	13 June 2018	'Tyler Durden'	This is probably the first time in the history of litigation that a plaintiff (here, prosecutor) has told a court that it may not have obtained good service of process on a defendant that has appeared to defend the case on the merits. Robert Mueller to US District Court: "We didn’t really mean it, Judge! We had no idea they might actually show up!"
Document:Muellergate and the Discreet Lies of the Bourgeoisie	Blog post	1 April 2019	Craig Murray	The capacity of the mainstream media repeatedly to promote the myth that Russia caused Clinton’s defeat, while never mentioning what the information was that had been so damaging to Hillary, should be alarming to anybody under the illusion that we have a working “free media”.
Document:Pro-Kremlin trolls infiltrating comments on news sites for major influence operation, research says	Article	6 September 2021	Deborah Haynes	A study at Cardiff University shows that "Pro-Kremlin trolls" are influencing opinion in the West by infiltrating the comments sections of news websites. Dissent from the Official Narrative? Must be Russian disinformation.
Document:Why is disgraced MI6 author of the dodgy Trump-Russia dossier involved in a controversial group seeking harsh Covid restrictions?	Article	24 July 2021	Kit Klarenberg	Christopher Steele, the Russiagate spook is involved in lobbying for more lockdowns in the UK.
Document:Would-be German chancellor Scholz jumps the gun on EU expansion eastward, which may provoke more states to follow the UK and exit	Article	15 August 2021	Paul Nuttall	Olaf Scholz is a possible candidate for Chancellor of Germany at the September 2021 German parliamentary election. He has warned Russia to expect further European integration and expansion into Eastern Europe. Will this encourage more countries to follow the UK and leave the European Union?

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References

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