Hackers, Bots, Trolls, and Things
Over the last few weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign finally surfaced--but it was buried repeatedly by Trump and Russian active measures.
By the time the 2016 presidential campaign entered its last month, intelligence analysts in the Obama administration had already figured out that Russia was playing a key role in aiding Trump’s campaign. On October 7, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of National Intelligence on Election Security issued a joint statement declaring that:
the intelligence community is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.
The statement notably did not mention the Republican Party or Donald Trump by name, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out who was being hacked. The press release said that leaks “mirror the methods and motivations of past Russian-directed cyberattacks” and were “intended to interfere with the US election process.” Moreover, earlier that summer, on June 14, the Washington Post reported that Russian government hackers had penetrated the Democratic National Committee’s computer network.
As a result, all of America should have known that the Russians had hacked the emails of the Democratic National Committee to aid Trump. Senators John McCain(AR-R) and Ben Cardin(MD-D) both called Russia’s interference in the election “an act of war.”Coming as they did just two days before the second debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton, these were precisely the kind of revelations that ordinarily would have been a devastating blow to the Trump campaign.
But October 7 was a Friday. In the political and media worlds, it is well known that if you want to bury a story, you release it on a Friday afternoon when it is too late for the evening news and will be consigned to the Saturday newspapers, which, famously, are not widely read. Given that Obama was still in the White House, one might think they would have wanted to promote it widely first thing Monday morning as a way of trying to dominate news coverage for the entire week. After all this was an historic even: A hostile foreign power—Russia—had secretly been working on behalf of the Republicans to help Trump’s campaign!
But instead of releasing it when the story might have had huge impact, the DHS and the Office of National Intelligence on Election Security made the announcement at 4:00 pm on Friday.
That meant almost no one would hear the news.
Then, just 30 minutes after the story was released—came another spectacular bombshell. At 4:30 pm, the Washington Post’s David Farenthold released the infamous Access Hollywood video in which Trump boasts about grabbing women “by the pussy.” That meant the Obama administration’s report on collusion—yes, collusion—between Russia and the Trump campaign was pretty much assured of being deeply entombed in the rapid-fire news cycle.
The entire country was agog—and that meant Trump desperately needed to have a miracle up his sleeve. In late July, at a campaign rally in Doral, Florida, Trump had gone so far as to suggest that Russian operatives should hack into the email account of Hillary Clinton, to help retrieve her deleted emails. “Russia, if you’re listening,” he said, “I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
In the ensuing weeks, Trump operative Roger Stone had been “predicting” that devastating revelations would be forthcoming from WikiLeaks about the Clinton Foundation. On August 21, Stone had tweeted, “Trust me, it will soon [be] Podesta’s time in the barrel,” a reference to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. Afterwards, during a Q and A session at a meeting of Republican activists in Florida, Stone had said, “I actually have communicated with [WikiLeaks chief Julian]Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation.”
And later, during a radio appearance, Stone had said he expected Assange and WikiLeaks to drop “a payload of new documents on Hillary” fairly soon.
And now, finally, when it was needed most to diffuse the Access Hollywood video, WikiLeaks rode in to Trump’s rescue like the cavalry of yore. Less than an hour after the Access Hollywood tape was leaked, WikiLeaks released thousands of hacked emails of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, as if they were valiantly fighting to win back control of the narrative. The first tranche of Podesta’s emails contained 2,050 messages that would dominate headlines for the next month. In addition, to make sure the emails were disseminated to millions of social media accounts, at least 2,552 Twitter accounts from Russia’s Internet Research Agency went into action on Trump’s behalf. Former Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon, who had become CEO of the Trump campaign, assiduously aligned the campaign’s messaging with the emails that were being released.
And so it went, Russian hackers and bots leading a supine press corps by its nose. After all, it is far easier to write stories about hacked emails that are delivered on a silver platter than to probe a multifarious political conspiracy to sabotage a presidential election. By late October, the WikiLeaks weapon had been deployed with devastating effect. Every news cycle brought fresh stolen emails. The Trump campaign promoted each release, knowing they came from Russian intelligence.
Then, finally, on October 28, 2016 — just 11 days before the election — FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress announcing that the FBI had discovered emails potentially relevant to its already-closed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. The emails had turned up on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner (the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin) during an unrelated investigation. On November 6, two days before the election, Comey sent a follow-up letter saying the FBI had reviewed the emails and found nothing to change its earlier conclusion.
The damage, however, was done. In fact, Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight analysis argues compellingly that the letter cost Clinton the election — her polling lead was cut roughly in half in the days after it dropped, and she lost several key states by razor-thin margins. Clinton herself said: “I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me.
The operation that began with Trump’s cultivation in the 1980s was in its endgame. One last week, and an asset of Russian intelligence would be in the White House, in the Oval Office, seated behind the Resolute Desk.
And, as for the DHS memo—who the hell remembers that?
Cast of Characters
John Podesta: Campaign manager of Hillary Clinton, Podesta’s emails were hacked by Russian trolls and released during the final days of the campaign..
Roger Stone: Trump political operative Stone served as back-channel between Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. Had advance knowledge of Podesta email release.
Steve Bannon: Breitbart chairman Bannon became the Trump campaign’s CEO in August and began coordinating the campaign’s messaging. Coordinates messaging around WikiLeaks email releases.
Julian Assange/WikiLeaks: Releases stolen emails in coordination with Russian intelligence and Trump campaign timing needs.
For the complete story on how Trump became a Russian asset, buy House of Trump, House of Putin, and/or American Kompromat.
And don’t miss my latest book, Den of Spies!
House of Trump, House of Putin
The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia
American Kompromat
How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery
Den of Spies
Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House
Hope you read "The Hoax" that I published today. Great minds and all that . . . . This is a good piece Craig. Now how in the Hell do we get the American people to grasp that our country is under seige?
Russian interference also violated the terms of diplomatic recognition of the FSU in 1933, which obligations post-Soviet Russia took up.
The Internet Research Agency’s cadre responded to Trump’s “Russia, If You’re Listening” leapt to action five HOURS after his comment. Given the timezone difference, they really snapped to!