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Special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s \u2018Russiagate\u2019 report has cleared Donald Trump of \u2018collusion\u2019 charges but maintains that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election. Yet concrete evidence of that is nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n
The report by Mueller and his team, made public on Thursday by the US Department of Justice, exonerates not just Trump but all Americans of any \u201ccollusion\u201d<\/em> with Russia, \u201cobliterating\u201d<\/em> the Russiagate conspiracy theory, as journalist Glenn Greenwald\u00a0put it<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, it asserts that Russian \u201cinterference\u201d<\/em> in the election did happen, and says it consisted of a campaign on social media as well as Russian military intelligence (repeatedly referred to by its old, Soviet-era name, GRU) \u201chacking\u201d<\/em> the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the DNC, and the private email account of Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign chair, John Podesta.<\/p>\n As evidence of this, the report basically offers nothing but Mueller\u2019s indictment<\/a> of \u201cGRU agents,\u201d<\/em> delivered on the eve of the Helsinki Summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in what was surely a cosmic coincidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Indictments are not evidence, however, but allegations. Any time it looks like the report might be bringing up proof, it ends up being redacted, ostensibly to protect sources and methods, and out of concern it might cause \u201charm to an ongoing matter.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Mueller\u2019s report leads with the claim that the Internet Research Agency (IRA) ran an \u201cactive measures\u201d<\/em> campaign of social media influence. Citing Facebook and Twitter estimates, the report says this consisted of 470 Facebook accounts that made 80,000 posts that may have been seen by up to 126 million people, between January 2015 and August 2017 (almost a year after the election), and 3,814 Twitter accounts that \u201cmay have been\u201d<\/em> in contact with about 1.4 million people.<\/p>\n Those numbers may seem substantial but, as investigative journalist Gareth Porter pointed out<\/a> in November 2018, they should be regarded against the background of 33 trillion Facebook posts made during the same period.<\/p>\n According to Mueller, the IRA mind-controlled the American electorate by spending \u201capproximately $100,000\u201d<\/em> on Facebook ads, hiring someone to walk around New York City \u201cdressed up as Santa Claus with a Trump mask,\u201d<\/em> and getting Trump campaign affiliates to promote \u201cdozens of tweets, posts, and other political content created by the IRA.\u201d<\/em> Dozens!<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the key evidence against IRA\u2019s alleged boss Evgeny Prigozhin is that he \u201cappeared together in public photographs\u201d<\/em> with Putin.<\/p>\n The report claims that the GRU hacked their way into 29 DCCC computers and another 30 DNC computers, and downloaded data using software called \u201cX-Tunnel.\u201d<\/em> It is unclear how Mueller\u2019s investigators claim to know this, as the report makes no mention of them or FBI actually examining DNC or DCCC computers. Presumably they took the word<\/a> of CrowdStrike, the Democrats\u2019 private contractor, for it.<\/p>\n However obtained, the documents were published first through DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 \u2013 which the report claims are \u201cfictitious online personas\u201d<\/em> created by the GRU \u2013 and later through WikiLeaks. What is Mueller\u2019s proof that these two entities were \u201cGRU\u201d<\/em> cutouts? In a word, this:<\/p>\n That the Guccifer 2.0 persona provided reporters access to a restricted portion of the DCLeaks website tends to indicate that both personas were operated by the same or a closely-related group of people.<\/strong><\/em>(p. 43)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n However, the report acknowledges that the \u201cfirst known contact\u201d<\/em> between Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks was on September 15, 2016 \u2013 months after the DNC and DCCC documents were published! Here we do get actual evidence: direct messages on Twitter obtained by investigators. Behold, these \u201cspies\u201d<\/em> are so good, they don\u2019t even talk \u2013 and when they do, they use unsecured channels!<\/p>\n
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\n Also on rt.com<\/span>
\n READ: US Justice Department releases Mueller report on Trump-Russia ‘collusion’ investigation<\/span>
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\n<\/a><\/p>\n\u2018Active measures\u2019 on social media<\/h2>\n
Alleged hacking & release<\/h2>\n
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\n Also on rt.com<\/span>
\n Let\u2019s hear out Assange? US intelligence veterans say Mueller failed to prove \u2018Russian hacking\u2019<\/span>
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