Early Morning Update on July 14 included !
The Friday indictment of a dozen Russian nationals for hacking into the Democratic National Committee landed days before President Donald Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding a stunning new dimension to a meeting already fraught with tension.
Hours before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the charges, Trump vowed to ask Putin “firmly” about Moscow’s involvement in the last presidential election, but he warned that the “stupidity” of domestic politics and the special counsel's ongoing probe into the issue was holding back U.S.-Russian relations.
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Rosenstein unveiled the indictments of 12 Russians, all Russian intelligence officers, that special counsel Robert Mueller alleged "engaged in a sustained effort to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the DNC and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton."
Rosenstein said he had briefed Trump about the allegations earlier this week and said the timing of the announcement was a coincidence.
Throughout his European tour, Trump has suggested he would like to build a better relationship with Putin. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump described Putin as a "competitor," not an enemy or a friend.
"Not a question of friend or enemy. He’s not my enemy. And hopefully, someday, maybe he’ll be a friend. It could happen,” Trump said.
Democrats on Capitol Hill said the indictments underscored the need for Trump to press Putin on the issue. Several, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Trump to cancel the meeting altogether.
“These indictments are further proof of what everyone but the president seems to understand: President Putin is an adversary who interfered in our elections to help President Trump win," Schumer said.
[USA Today on July 13, 2018]
The 12 [indicted Russians] are members of Russia’s spy agency the GRU, the successor to the KGB, in which President Putin was an intelligence officer.
Mr Rosenstein said they disseminated the stolen emails, which rocked Clinton’s campaign, on the websites Guccifer 2.0, DCLeaks, and “another entity.”
DCLeaks disguised itself as the work of American hackers, while Guccifer was supposedly a lone Romanian. But Mr Rosenstein said they were all GRU agents.
The defendants were slapped with multiple charges, including conspiracy, identity theft and money laundering. They remain at large, presumably in Russia.
Mr Rosenstein said there was no evidence of American involvement in the indictments, and that nothing in the indictment suggested the hacking changed the election results.
And he warned people to avoid speculation about the ongoing Mueller probe.
“I want to caution you, the people who speculate about federal investigations usually do not know all of the relevant facts. We do not try cases on television or in congressional hearings,” he said.
[News.Com.Au , Australia on July 14, 2018]
Some days earlier on July 4, first allegations of Russia having interfered in 2016 US presidential elections were published by China News Network 中国新闻网:
US visitor to "blueprint news" and who has a special interest in the 2016 election subject.
Visitor coming from Sanaa in Yemen.
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