Day 558

[matt (Matt Kiser)]

Updated 7/31/2018 1:14 PM PDT

1/ Facebook identified a coordinated political influence campaign involving 32 "inauthentic" pages and profiles engaging in divisive messaging ahead of the midterm elections. While the social media company said it couldn't directly tie the activity to Russia, company officials told Capitol Hill that Russia was possibly involved. "It's clear that whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their true identities than the Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) has in the past," Facebook wrote. The company removed 32 pages and accounts. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / NBC News / Wall Street Journal)

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/07/31/day-558/

[dragonfly9]

@matt

Russia’s top diplomat claimed his country has access to insider information about U.S. military plans. Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would be “provided with information about the schemes harbored by the militaries of both the U.S. and other Western countries against the Russian Federation.”

The Russians are just sticking it to USA…

Looking up different sources for this’ but see a lot of RT and TASS.

Probably true’ just horrendous though.

[dragonfly9]

Ongoing clean up on Mueller’s part, sending these cases to SDNY for lobbyists and acting as foreign agents.

( CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller has referred a collection of cases to New York federal prosecutors concerning whether several high-profile American lobbyists and operatives failed to register their work as foreign agents, according to people familiar with the matter.

The transfer of the inquiries marks an escalation of Mueller’s referrals to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in the period since he turned over a case involving President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Since the spring, Mueller has referred matters to SDNY involving longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta and his work for his former firm, the Podesta Group, and former Minnesota Republican Rep. Vin Weber and his work for Mercury Public Affairs, the sources said.

One source said that former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, a former partner at law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, is also part of the inquiry.

None of the entities involved have been charged with wrongdoing, and there is no indication the SDNY inquiry will result in criminal charges.

Mueller refers foreign agent inquiries to New York prosecutors

Mueller referred foreign lobbying case to New York prosecutors

[dragonfly9]

Brazen 'rule by a thief or thieves…"

kleptocracy
noun, plural klep·toc·ra·cies.

a government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves.

This Is So Much Bigger Than Paul Manafort

With Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman on trial, America is reckoning with its very serious kleptocracy problem.

On the eve of the Paul Manafort trial, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin casually announced that the Trump administration was considering a fresh $100 billion tax cut for the wealthy. The two events—the trial and the tax cut—should be considered plot points in the very same narrative. Manafort had grown very rich by looting public monies, and Mnuchin was proposing an arguably legal version of the same.

Unlike past Trump tax cuts, this proposed cut would be implemented by executive fiat, without a congressional vote—a highly unusual and highly undemocratic act of plunder that would redirect money from the state to further enrich the American elite, not to mention Mnuchin himself.

This Is So Much Bigger Than Paul Manafort

Definition of kleptocracy | Dictionary.com

[Keaton_James]

Here Is The Money Trail From The Russian "Agent" And Her Republican Partner

Investigators are just getting started following the money trail left by Maria Butina and Paul Erickson.

A $45,000 payment to an undisclosed law firm. A cash withdrawal for $14,000. Almost $90,000 sent to or from a Russian bank. These and other bank transactions totaling nearly $300,000, none of which have been made public, offer the first detailed look at how an accused foreign agent and a Republican operative financed what prosecutors say was a Russian campaign to influence American politics.

Anti-fraud investigators at Wells Fargo flagged the transactions — by Paul Erickson, a conservative consultant from South Dakota, and Maria Butina, who is in jail awaiting trial on charges of secretly acting as a Russian agent — as “suspicious,” noting in some cases that they could find no “apparent economic, business, or lawful purpose” to explain them. Now counterintelligence officers say the duo’s banking activity could provide a road map of back channels to powerful American entities such as the National Rifle Association, and information about the Kremlin’s attempt to sway the 2016 US presidential election.

[dragonfly9]

and it starts again…and again…and again. T’s twitter this am…tries to tweet like justice had an on-off switch.

The pressure is on bigly.

@RepAdamSchiff

Adam Schiff Retweeted Donald J. Trump

The President of the United States just called on his Attorney General to put an end to an investigation in which the President, his family and campaign may be implicated.

This is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight. America must never accept it

@realDonaldTrump

…This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!
6:24 AM - 1 Aug 2018

Adam Schiff (RepAdamSchiff)

[dragonfly9]

@Keaton_James

money trail left by Maria Butina and Paul Erickson.

A lot to see here with these large deposits…wow.