I LOVE HOW ATINE IMPLIES THAT HE IS A FUNCTIONING ADULT. FUNNIEST PART OF THAT POST.
I LOVE HOW ATINE IMPLIES THAT HE IS A FUNCTIONING ADULT. FUNNIEST PART OF THAT POST.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chaps' 2017-18 NFL $$ Thread
paywall and i'd have to use my work login which i don't have on me.Originally Posted by sonatine
cliffs?
Nice summary of Ukraine kerfuffle impeachment hearings by Ari Melber.
_____________________________________________
If Trump does not get convicted by the Senate *and* loses re-election, the incoming president would be obligated by duty to the office to being charges against Trump for the crimes that the Mueller report and impeachment hearings have uncovered. That is, unless Trump resigns from office before his term is up and has Mike Pence give him a blanket pardon before the president-elect is sworn in.
_____________________________________________
russia spun the entire ukraine / crowdstrike / 2016 fiction and trump bought it because ok boomer.paywall and i'd have to use my work login which i don't have on me.
cliffs?
Charges of Ukrainian Meddling? A Russian Operation, U.S. Intelligence Says
Moscow has run a yearslong operation to blame Ukraine for its own 2016 election interference. Republicans have used similar talking points to defend President Trump in impeachment proceedings.
President Vladmir V. Putin of Russia has been pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference since early 2017, according to American officials.
President Vladmir V. Putin of Russia has been pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference since early 2017, according to American officials.Credit...Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, via Reuters
By Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Rosenberg
Nov. 22, 2019, 1:34 p.m. ET
706
WASHINGTON — Republicans have sought for weeks amid the impeachment inquiry to shift attention to President Trump’s demands that Ukraine investigate any 2016 election meddling, defending it as a legitimate concern while Democrats accuse Mr. Trump of pursuing fringe theories for his benefit.
The Republican defense of Mr. Trump became central to the impeachment proceedings when Fiona Hill, a respected Russia scholar and former senior White House official, added a harsh critique during testimony on Thursday. She told some of Mr. Trump’s fiercest defenders in Congress that they were repeating “a fictional narrative.” She said that it likely came from a disinformation campaign by Russian security services, which also propagated it.
In a briefing that closely aligned with Dr. Hill’s testimony, American intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of the 2016 election, according to three American officials. The briefing came as Republicans stepped up their defenses of Mr. Trump in the Ukraine affair.
The revelations demonstrate Russia’s persistence in trying to sow discord among its adversaries — and show that the Kremlin apparently succeeded, as unfounded claims about Ukrainian interference seeped into Republican talking points. American intelligence agencies believe Moscow is likely to redouble its efforts as the 2020 presidential campaign intensifies. The classified briefing for senators also focused on Russia’s evolving influence tactics, including its growing ability to better disguise operations.
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Russia has engaged in a “long pattern of deflection” to pin blame for its malevolent acts on other countries, Dr. Hill said, not least Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. Since Ukraine won independence in 1991, Russia has tried to reassert influence there, meddling in its politics, maligning pro-Western leaders and accusing Ukrainian critics of Moscow of fascist leanings.
“The Russians have a particular vested interest in putting Ukraine, Ukrainian leaders in a very bad light,” she told lawmakers.
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Subscribe to The Times
But the campaign by Russian intelligence in recent years has been even more complex as Moscow tries not only to undermine the government in Kyiv but also to use a disinformation campaign there to influence the American political debate.
RUSSIA’S PLAYBOOK FOR DISRUPTING DEMOCRACYThe Kremlin had a blueprint for upending American politics with tactics honed in other former Soviet satellite states. Watch “The Weekly,” our TV show, available to Times subscribers in the U.S.
The accusations of a Ukrainian influence campaign center on actions by a handful of Ukrainians who openly criticized or sought to damage Mr. Trump’s candidacy in 2016. They were scattershot efforts that were far from a replica of Moscow’s interference, when President Vladimir V. Putin ordered military and intelligence operatives to mount a broad campaign to sabotage the American election. The Russians in 2016 conducted covert operations to hack Democratic computers and to use social media to exploit divisions among Americans.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
This time, Russian intelligence operatives deployed a network of agents to blame Ukraine for its 2016 interference. Starting at least in 2017, the operatives peddled a mixture of now-debunked conspiracy theories along with established facts to leave an impression that the government in Kyiv, not Moscow, was responsible for the hackings of Democrats and its other interference efforts in 2016, senior intelligence officials said.
The Russian intelligence officers conveyed the information to prominent Russians and Ukrainians who then used a range of intermediaries, like oligarchs, businessmen and their associates, to pass the material to American political figures and even some journalists, who were likely unaware of its origin, the officials said.
Impeachment Inquiry
Latest Updates
Updated
Nov. 22, 2019
Who was the latest to testify?
Fiona Hill, the White House’s former top Europe and Russia expert, who had testified previously about her efforts to oppose the pressure campaign on Ukraine; and David Holmes, an official in the United States Embassy in Ukraine, who was a witness to a key phone call between President Trump and Gordon Sondland, his ambassador to the European Union.
What were the highlights?
Dr. Hill criticized Republicans for promoting what she called a “fictional narrative” embraced by Mr. Trump: that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 elections.
Dr. Hill called Mr. Trump’s demands for Ukraine to announce investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 elections a “domestic political errand” that diverged from American foreign policy goals.
Dr. Hill was asked about a now-famous line from her deposition, in which she quoted John Bolton, the national security adviser at the time, as saying, “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.” She said she took “drug deal” to mean the scheme of exchanging a White House meeting for the investigations Mr. Trump sought.
Both Dr. Hill and Mr. Holmes said that the use of the name “Burisma” — a Ukrainian energy company — was code for investigating the Bidens. Asked whether “anyone involved in Ukraine matters in the spring and summer would understand that as well,” Mr. Holmes had a one-word answer: “Yes.”
Mr. Holmes said he had a “clear impression” that the hold on nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine was “likely intended by the president either as an expression of dissatisfaction with the Ukrainians who had not yet agreed to the Burisma/Biden investigation, or as an effort to increase the pressure on them to do so.”
Sign up for updates: Get the latest developments from the House impeachment inquiry in your inbox.
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READ MORE
That muddy brew worked its way into American information ecosystems, sloshing around until parts of it reached Mr. Trump, who has also spoken with Mr. Putin about allegations of Ukrainian interference. Mr. Trump also brought up the assertions of Ukrainian meddling in his July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, which is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into whether he abused his power by asking for a public commitment to investigations he stood to gain from personally.
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Continue reading the main story
Image“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” said Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council.
“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” said Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Trump referred elliptically to allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election and brought up a related conspiracy theory. Asking Mr. Zelensky to “do us a favor,” Mr. Trump added, “I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine.”
Russia’s operation to blame Ukraine has become more relevant as Republicans have tried to focus public debate during the impeachment inquiry on any Ukrainian role in the 2016 campaign, American officials said.
Republicans have denounced any suggestion that their concerns about Ukrainian meddling are without merit or that they are ignoring Russia’s broader interference. “Not a single Republican member of this committee said Russia did not meddle in the 2016 elections,” Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, said Thursday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Indeed, Ms. Stefanik and her Republican colleagues on the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting the impeachment hearing, have also steered clear of the fringe notion that Mr. Trump mentioned to Mr. Zelensky, which is pushed by Russian intelligence: the so-called CrowdStrike server conspiracy theory, which falsely suggests Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the breach of Democratic operatives’ servers.
Mr. Trump repeated the baseless claim on Friday in an interview with “Fox & Friends,” laying out the narrative and doubling down after a host gently pressed him on whether he was sure of one aspect of the debunked theory, that the F.B.I. gave a Democratic server to what Mr. Trump had inaccurately described as a Ukrainian-owned company.
“That is what the word is,” Mr. Trump replied.
Some Republicans have also focused on Hunter Biden, raising questions about whether his hiring by the Ukrainian energy company Burisma was corrupt. Burisma hired Mr. Biden while his father, former Vice President Joseph Biden Jr., a potential rival of Mr. Trump’s in the 2020 election, was leading the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy. On the July 25 call, Mr. Trump also demanded Mr. Zelensky investigate Burisma and Hunter Biden.
Moscow has long used its intelligence agencies and propaganda machine to muddy the waters of public debate, casting doubts over established facts. In her testimony, Dr. Hill noted Russia’s pattern of trying to blame other countries for its own actions, like the attempted poisoning last year of a former Russian intelligence officer or the downing of a passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014. Moscow’s goal is to cast doubt on established facts, said current and former officials.
“The strategy is simply to create the impression that it is not really possible to know who was really behind it,” said Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks Russian disinformation efforts.
Although American intelligence agencies have made no formal classified assessment about the Russian disinformation campaign against Ukraine, officials at several of the agencies have broadly agreed for some time that Russian intelligence services have embraced tactics to shift responsibility for the 2016 interference campaign away from themselves, officials said.
Russia has relentlessly tried to deflect attention since the allegations of its interference campaign in the 2016 election first surfaced, one official said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Mr. Putin began publicly pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference in the early months of 2017 to deflect responsibility from Russia, said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who declined to answer questions about the briefing.
“These people are pros at this,” said Mr. King, who caucuses with the Democrats. “The Soviet Union used disinformation for 70 years. This is nothing new. Vladimir Putin is a former K.G.B. agent. He is trained in deception. This is his stock and trade and he is doing it well.”
During a news conference in February 2017, Mr. Putin accused the Ukrainian government of supporting Hillary Clinton during the previous American election and funding her candidacy with friendly oligarchs.
It is not clear when American intelligence agencies learned about Moscow’s campaign or when precisely it began.
Image
Mr. Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate claims of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate claims of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times
Russian intelligence officers aimed part of their operation at prompting the Ukrainian authorities to investigate the allegations that people in Ukraine tried to tamper with the 2016 American election and to shut down inquiries into corruption by pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, according to a former official.
One target was the leak of a secret ledger disclosed by a Ukrainian law enforcement agency that appeared to show that Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, had taken illicit payments from Ukrainian politicians who were close to Moscow. He was forced to step down from the Trump campaign after the ledger became public in August 2016, and the Russians have since been eager to cast doubt on its authenticity, the former official said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Intelligence officials believe that one of the people the Kremlin relied on to spread disinformation about Ukrainian interference was Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who had ties to Mr. Manafort. After his ouster from the campaign, Mr. Manafort told his former deputy later in 2016 that Ukrainians, not Russians, stole Democratic emails. Mr. Deripaska has broadly denied any role in election meddling.
“There is a long history of Russians putting out fake information,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior C.I.A. official. “Now they are trying to put out theories that they think are damaging to the United States.”
Correction: Nov. 22, 2019
An earlier version of this article misstated the organization where Laura Rosenberger is the director. It is the Alliance for Securing Democracy, not the Alliance for Defending Democracy.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
Current top story on CNN.com:
"Why Republicans Fall Back on Conspiracy Theories: In the age of Trump, facts are less important than clinging to a disproven conspiracy theory that keeps the President happy"
That's the actual headline.
The writer of this would have flunked Journalism 101 with hyper-biased headlines like that.
CNN really has become the fake news which Trump accused them of being 3-4 years ago. They actually morphed into a caricature of his accusation. Amazing.
you should totally bring it up again and see if it changes anything.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
Putting aside the issue of whether CNN is “fake news”, answer this question: Given the evidence that came out during the recent impeachment gearings, do you believe that Trump should be removed from office for abusing his power? If not, why?
_____________________________________________
except an unwritten rule is that presidents don't go after their predecessors as they wouldn't want it done to them. he's not going to jailIf Trump does not get convicted by the Senate *and* loses re-election, the incoming president would be obligated by duty to the office to being charges against Trump for the crimes that the Mueller report and impeachment hearings have uncovered. That is, unless Trump resigns from office before his term is up and has Mike Pence give him a blanket pardon before the president-elect is sworn in.
well, i don't doubt anything fiona hill was said and it's not as if i think russia is a non-issue for us. i just think tulsi gets a bit too tarnished with the russian menace.paywall and i'd have to use my work login which i don't have on me.
cliffs?
while we're discussing fiona, i actually had a chance to watch the hearings yesterday, and she is an absolute rockstar. just an amazingly compelling witness.
even adam schiff, who i went in having negative feelings about, made one of the best closing arguments i have ever seen in any setting. if you all haven't seen his argument at the end of the hearing, he makes a fantastic case for impeachment.
well, i don't doubt anything fiona hill was said and it's not as if i think russia is a non-issue for us. i just think tulsi gets a bit too tarnished with the russian menace.
while we're discussing fiona, i actually had a chance to watch the hearings yesterday, and she is an absolute rockstar. just an amazingly compelling witness.
even adam schiff, who i went in having negative feelings about, made one of the best closing arguments i have ever seen in any setting. if you all haven't seen his argument at the end of the hearing, he makes a fantastic case for impeachment.
related note; the narrative the GOP is settling on via Rudy / Ukraine is drawing them into direct confrontation with the literal russian mafia.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
speaking of which
https://twitter.com/twt/status/1197607345414660098
couple of things. one, she is a serious person. there are so few serious people in this administration, because serious people don't tolerate fools or criminals.
secondly, juuuuuust fuckin lol at nunes' face as that daily beast article gets quoted into the record.
just ... savor that shit.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
Putting aside the issue of whether CNN is “fake news”, answer this question: Given the evidence that came out during the recent impeachment gearings, do you believe that Trump should be removed from office for abusing his power? If not, why?
Did you watch the hearings?
GOP leaders are babbling about Crowdstrike, openly lying about procedure, smearing war heroes and lifelong diplomats etc.
PokerFraudAlert...will never censor your claims, even if they're against one of our sponsors. In addition to providing you an open forum report fraud within the poker community, we will also analyze your claims with a clear head an unbiased point of view. And, of course, the accused will always have the floor to defend themselves.-Dan Druff
did not readrussia spun the entire ukraine / crowdstrike / 2016 fiction and trump bought it because ok boomer.
Charges of Ukrainian Meddling? A Russian Operation, U.S. Intelligence Says
Moscow has run a yearslong operation to blame Ukraine for its own 2016 election interference. Republicans have used similar talking points to defend President Trump in impeachment proceedings.
President Vladmir V. Putin of Russia has been pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference since early 2017, according to American officials.
President Vladmir V. Putin of Russia has been pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference since early 2017, according to American officials.Credit...Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, via Reuters
By Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Rosenberg
Nov. 22, 2019, 1:34 p.m. ET
706
WASHINGTON — Republicans have sought for weeks amid the impeachment inquiry to shift attention to President Trump’s demands that Ukraine investigate any 2016 election meddling, defending it as a legitimate concern while Democrats accuse Mr. Trump of pursuing fringe theories for his benefit.
The Republican defense of Mr. Trump became central to the impeachment proceedings when Fiona Hill, a respected Russia scholar and former senior White House official, added a harsh critique during testimony on Thursday. She told some of Mr. Trump’s fiercest defenders in Congress that they were repeating “a fictional narrative.” She said that it likely came from a disinformation campaign by Russian security services, which also propagated it.
In a briefing that closely aligned with Dr. Hill’s testimony, American intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of the 2016 election, according to three American officials. The briefing came as Republicans stepped up their defenses of Mr. Trump in the Ukraine affair.
The revelations demonstrate Russia’s persistence in trying to sow discord among its adversaries — and show that the Kremlin apparently succeeded, as unfounded claims about Ukrainian interference seeped into Republican talking points. American intelligence agencies believe Moscow is likely to redouble its efforts as the 2020 presidential campaign intensifies. The classified briefing for senators also focused on Russia’s evolving influence tactics, including its growing ability to better disguise operations.
Sign Up for On Politics With Lisa Lerer
A spotlight on the people reshaping our politics. A conversation with voters across the country. And a guiding hand through the endless news cycle, telling you what you really need to know.
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ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Russia has engaged in a “long pattern of deflection” to pin blame for its malevolent acts on other countries, Dr. Hill said, not least Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. Since Ukraine won independence in 1991, Russia has tried to reassert influence there, meddling in its politics, maligning pro-Western leaders and accusing Ukrainian critics of Moscow of fascist leanings.
“The Russians have a particular vested interest in putting Ukraine, Ukrainian leaders in a very bad light,” she told lawmakers.
You have 5 free articles remaining.
Subscribe to The Times
But the campaign by Russian intelligence in recent years has been even more complex as Moscow tries not only to undermine the government in Kyiv but also to use a disinformation campaign there to influence the American political debate.
RUSSIA’S PLAYBOOK FOR DISRUPTING DEMOCRACYThe Kremlin had a blueprint for upending American politics with tactics honed in other former Soviet satellite states. Watch “The Weekly,” our TV show, available to Times subscribers in the U.S.
The accusations of a Ukrainian influence campaign center on actions by a handful of Ukrainians who openly criticized or sought to damage Mr. Trump’s candidacy in 2016. They were scattershot efforts that were far from a replica of Moscow’s interference, when President Vladimir V. Putin ordered military and intelligence operatives to mount a broad campaign to sabotage the American election. The Russians in 2016 conducted covert operations to hack Democratic computers and to use social media to exploit divisions among Americans.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
This time, Russian intelligence operatives deployed a network of agents to blame Ukraine for its 2016 interference. Starting at least in 2017, the operatives peddled a mixture of now-debunked conspiracy theories along with established facts to leave an impression that the government in Kyiv, not Moscow, was responsible for the hackings of Democrats and its other interference efforts in 2016, senior intelligence officials said.
The Russian intelligence officers conveyed the information to prominent Russians and Ukrainians who then used a range of intermediaries, like oligarchs, businessmen and their associates, to pass the material to American political figures and even some journalists, who were likely unaware of its origin, the officials said.
Impeachment Inquiry
Latest Updates
Updated
Nov. 22, 2019
Who was the latest to testify?
Fiona Hill, the White House’s former top Europe and Russia expert, who had testified previously about her efforts to oppose the pressure campaign on Ukraine; and David Holmes, an official in the United States Embassy in Ukraine, who was a witness to a key phone call between President Trump and Gordon Sondland, his ambassador to the European Union.
What were the highlights?
Dr. Hill criticized Republicans for promoting what she called a “fictional narrative” embraced by Mr. Trump: that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 elections.
Dr. Hill called Mr. Trump’s demands for Ukraine to announce investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 elections a “domestic political errand” that diverged from American foreign policy goals.
Dr. Hill was asked about a now-famous line from her deposition, in which she quoted John Bolton, the national security adviser at the time, as saying, “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.” She said she took “drug deal” to mean the scheme of exchanging a White House meeting for the investigations Mr. Trump sought.
Both Dr. Hill and Mr. Holmes said that the use of the name “Burisma” — a Ukrainian energy company — was code for investigating the Bidens. Asked whether “anyone involved in Ukraine matters in the spring and summer would understand that as well,” Mr. Holmes had a one-word answer: “Yes.”
Mr. Holmes said he had a “clear impression” that the hold on nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine was “likely intended by the president either as an expression of dissatisfaction with the Ukrainians who had not yet agreed to the Burisma/Biden investigation, or as an effort to increase the pressure on them to do so.”
Sign up for updates: Get the latest developments from the House impeachment inquiry in your inbox.
Sign Up
READ MORE
That muddy brew worked its way into American information ecosystems, sloshing around until parts of it reached Mr. Trump, who has also spoken with Mr. Putin about allegations of Ukrainian interference. Mr. Trump also brought up the assertions of Ukrainian meddling in his July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, which is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into whether he abused his power by asking for a public commitment to investigations he stood to gain from personally.
Editors’ Picks
Typing These Two Letters Will Scare Your Young Co-Workers
Face It, Mom and Dad: I’m Not Special
Three Students, $3,000 and a Dream: An Affordable Brooklyn Apartment. Where Did They Wind Up?
Continue reading the main story
Image“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” said Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council.
“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” said Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Trump referred elliptically to allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election and brought up a related conspiracy theory. Asking Mr. Zelensky to “do us a favor,” Mr. Trump added, “I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine.”
Russia’s operation to blame Ukraine has become more relevant as Republicans have tried to focus public debate during the impeachment inquiry on any Ukrainian role in the 2016 campaign, American officials said.
Republicans have denounced any suggestion that their concerns about Ukrainian meddling are without merit or that they are ignoring Russia’s broader interference. “Not a single Republican member of this committee said Russia did not meddle in the 2016 elections,” Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, said Thursday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Indeed, Ms. Stefanik and her Republican colleagues on the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting the impeachment hearing, have also steered clear of the fringe notion that Mr. Trump mentioned to Mr. Zelensky, which is pushed by Russian intelligence: the so-called CrowdStrike server conspiracy theory, which falsely suggests Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the breach of Democratic operatives’ servers.
Mr. Trump repeated the baseless claim on Friday in an interview with “Fox & Friends,” laying out the narrative and doubling down after a host gently pressed him on whether he was sure of one aspect of the debunked theory, that the F.B.I. gave a Democratic server to what Mr. Trump had inaccurately described as a Ukrainian-owned company.
“That is what the word is,” Mr. Trump replied.
Some Republicans have also focused on Hunter Biden, raising questions about whether his hiring by the Ukrainian energy company Burisma was corrupt. Burisma hired Mr. Biden while his father, former Vice President Joseph Biden Jr., a potential rival of Mr. Trump’s in the 2020 election, was leading the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy. On the July 25 call, Mr. Trump also demanded Mr. Zelensky investigate Burisma and Hunter Biden.
Moscow has long used its intelligence agencies and propaganda machine to muddy the waters of public debate, casting doubts over established facts. In her testimony, Dr. Hill noted Russia’s pattern of trying to blame other countries for its own actions, like the attempted poisoning last year of a former Russian intelligence officer or the downing of a passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014. Moscow’s goal is to cast doubt on established facts, said current and former officials.
“The strategy is simply to create the impression that it is not really possible to know who was really behind it,” said Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks Russian disinformation efforts.
Although American intelligence agencies have made no formal classified assessment about the Russian disinformation campaign against Ukraine, officials at several of the agencies have broadly agreed for some time that Russian intelligence services have embraced tactics to shift responsibility for the 2016 interference campaign away from themselves, officials said.
Russia has relentlessly tried to deflect attention since the allegations of its interference campaign in the 2016 election first surfaced, one official said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Mr. Putin began publicly pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference in the early months of 2017 to deflect responsibility from Russia, said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who declined to answer questions about the briefing.
“These people are pros at this,” said Mr. King, who caucuses with the Democrats. “The Soviet Union used disinformation for 70 years. This is nothing new. Vladimir Putin is a former K.G.B. agent. He is trained in deception. This is his stock and trade and he is doing it well.”
During a news conference in February 2017, Mr. Putin accused the Ukrainian government of supporting Hillary Clinton during the previous American election and funding her candidacy with friendly oligarchs.
It is not clear when American intelligence agencies learned about Moscow’s campaign or when precisely it began.
Image
Mr. Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate claims of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate claims of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times
Russian intelligence officers aimed part of their operation at prompting the Ukrainian authorities to investigate the allegations that people in Ukraine tried to tamper with the 2016 American election and to shut down inquiries into corruption by pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, according to a former official.
One target was the leak of a secret ledger disclosed by a Ukrainian law enforcement agency that appeared to show that Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, had taken illicit payments from Ukrainian politicians who were close to Moscow. He was forced to step down from the Trump campaign after the ledger became public in August 2016, and the Russians have since been eager to cast doubt on its authenticity, the former official said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Intelligence officials believe that one of the people the Kremlin relied on to spread disinformation about Ukrainian interference was Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who had ties to Mr. Manafort. After his ouster from the campaign, Mr. Manafort told his former deputy later in 2016 that Ukrainians, not Russians, stole Democratic emails. Mr. Deripaska has broadly denied any role in election meddling.
“There is a long history of Russians putting out fake information,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior C.I.A. official. “Now they are trying to put out theories that they think are damaging to the United States.”
Correction: Nov. 22, 2019
An earlier version of this article misstated the organization where Laura Rosenberger is the director. It is the Alliance for Securing Democracy, not the Alliance for Defending Democracy.
Did you watch the hearings?
GOP leaders are babbling about Crowdstrike, openly lying about procedure, smearing war heroes and lifelong diplomats etc.
Crowdstrike was hired by the DNC who were caught in the emails being giant scamming pos but yet its a conspiracy theory they would keep lying for their own gain?
I was also told that borat gave a tour de force where he said thinking ppl like druff being a cheap jew would be a conspiracy theory
https://twitter.com/twt/status/1198135818646364160
not unlike this swill pond.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
CNN: Lev Parnas Willing to Tell Congress Nunes Spoke With Fmr Ukrainian Official to Get Dirt on Biden
https://www.mediaite.com/news/cnn-le...dirt-on-biden/
uhoh
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